THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

RIVERSIDE 


GIFT  OF 
Dr.  Gordon  Watkins 


THE   NEW  INDUSTRIAL   UNREST: 
REASONS  AND   REMEDIES 


-A  IP 


THE 

NEW   INDUSTRIAL 
UNREST: 

REASONS    AND    REMEDIES 


BY 

RAY  STANNARD  BAKER 


GARDEN  CITY  NEW  YORK 

DOUBLEDAY,  PAGE  &  COMPANY 

1920 


63 


COPTBIGHT,  1920,  BT 
DOT7BLEDAY,  PAGE  &  COMPANY 

ALL  RIGHTS  RESERVED,  INCLUDING  THAT  OF  TRANSLATION 
INTO  FOREIGN  LANGUAGES,  INCLUDING  THE  SCANDINAVIAN 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGK 

I.    The  New  Industrial  Crisis    ....          3 
II.    The   Industrial   Crisis   as   it  Appears   from 

above  to  the  Capitalist-Employer     .        .        13 
III.    The   Industrial  Crisis   as   it  Appears   from 

below  to  the  Worker 27 

IV.    The  Imputed  Causes  of  the  Unrest       .        .        40 
V.    The  Real  Causes  of  the  Unrest    ...       48 
VI.    The   Massed   Forces  behind  the   Industrial 

Conflict — Organized  Labor        ...        58 
VII.    The  Massed   Forces   behind   the   Industrial 

Conflict — Organized  Capital      ...        73 
VIII.    Awakening  of  the  Public  to  the  Industrial 

Crisis 86 

IX.    Approaches  to  a  Solution  of  the  Problem — 
by  Americanization,  as  suggested  by  the 

Employers 99 

X.  Approaches  to  a  Solution  of  the  Problem — 
by  Political  Action,  as  suggested  by  the 
Workers.  The  New  Labor  Party  .  .  Ill 
XI.  The  Genius  of  Mechanism  and  the  Soul  of 
Man.  The  Spiritual  Aspect  of  the  Prob- 
lem   123 

XII.  Welfare  Work  as  a  Solution  of  the  Problem. 
How  it  is  Regarded  by  both  Employers 
and  Workers  ...  136 


vi  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XIII.  The  New  Shop-Council  System  as  applied 

in  a  Typical  Small  Industry — The 
Dutchess  Bleachery  at  Wappingers  Falls, 
New  York 149 

XIV.  Development  of  the  Shop-Council  System  in 

America.     Method  of  Organization.     The 
Movement  in  England  and  Germany       .      166 
XV.    The  Shop-Council  System  as  Applied  to  the 
Men's  Clothing  Industry  of  America  and 
Canada — The    History,    Principles    and 
Structure  of  the  Development  .        .        .179 
XVI.    A  Critical  Examination  of  the  Shop-Council 
System  in  the  Clothing  Industry.     How 
does  it  Really  Work?     What  are  its  Ex- 
cellencies and  Limitations?        .        .        .193 
XVII.    Foundations     of     the     New     Co-operative 
Movement  in  Industry:  the  new  Profes- 
sion   of    Management,    and    the    Labor 

Manager 208 

XVIII.  Autocracy  and  Democracy  Struggle  for  In- 
dustrial Control.  Some  Results  of  the 
New  Co-operative  Experiments  .  .  219 


THE   NEW  INDUSTRIAL   UNREST: 
REASONS   AND   REMEDIES 


THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

CHAPTER  I 

THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  CRISIS 

WE     have     recently     emerged     from 
two  of  the  greatest  strikes  the  coun- 
try ever  saw:  the  steel  strike  and 
the   coal   strike.     In   both   cases   the   losses   in 
wages,  in  production,  in  earnings,  were  stupen- 
dous,  and  in  the   case  of  the  coal   strike  the 
country    was    brought    close    to    the    brink    of 
disaster. 

We  have  indeed  emerged  from  both  strikes — 
but  with  nothing  really  settled.  Large  num- 
bers of  the  men  went  back  to  work  dissatisfied. 
There  was  no  compromise  and  apparently  no 
spirit  of  compromise.  Judge  Gary  stands  just 
where  he  did  before  the  strike  began :  so  does  Mr. 
Gompers:  so  do  Mr.  Fitzpatrick  and  Mr.  Lewis. 
In  the  coal  strike  both  operators  and  miners  are 
sullen.  The  Pennsylvania  operators  were  as 
unwilling  to  accept  the  President's  proposal  for 
a  temporary  cessation  of  hostilities  as  were  the 
Illinois  miners. 

3 


4          THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

A  West  Virginia  leader,  commenting  upon 
the  discontent  among  the  miners  in  his  state, 
predicted  another  strike  within  a  few  months; 
and  the  twenty-four  presidents  of  unions  con- 
nected with  the  steel  strike  have  expressed  their 
determination  to  go  forward  with  the  struggle 
to  organize  the  workers  in  the  steel  industry. 

Leaders  in  both  camps  refer  in  clearer  terms 
than  ever  before  to  what  they  seem  to  regard 
as  irreconcilable  differences  of  view.  Judge 
Gary  was  heartily  cheered  by  1,500  members  of 
the  American  Iron  and  Steel  Institute,  an 
organization  of  the  iron  and  steel  masters  of 
the  nation,  when  he  declared  his  determination 
not  to  deal  with  representatives  of  labour 
unionism. 

'  This  is  the  great  question  confronting  the 
American  people,  and,  in  fact,  the  world 
public,"  he  said. 

During  the  progress  of  the  strike,  which 
began  in  September,  1919,  Judge  Gary  re- 
ceived hundreds  of  letters  and  telegrams  from 
employers  and  employers'  associations  in  many 
parts  of  the  country  supporting  his  position. 

On  the  other  hand  labour  is  taking  a  stronger 
stand  than  ever  before.  On  December  13,  1919, 
the  heads  of  119  powerful  national  unions  held 
a  conference  at  Washington,  and  adopted  a  new 
"  bill  of  rights."  They  reiterated  their  deter- 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  5 

mination  to  exercise  the  right  of  organization  for 
all  industries,  the  right  of  collective  bargaining, 
the  right  of  "  being  masters  of  themselves." 

"  Labour,"  they  said,  "  must  be  and  is  militant 
in  the  struggle  to  combat  the  sinister  influences 
and  tendencies.  Labour  will  not  permit  a  reduc- 
tion in  the  standard  of  living.  It  will  not  con- 
sent to  reaction  toward  autocratic  control." 

This  represents  the  view  of  the  conservative 
wing  of  the  labour  movement,  headed  by  Mr. 
Gompers.  The  more  radical  wing  of  the 
workers — and  I  do  not  mean  by  this  the  extreme 
revolutionary  fringe — met  on  November  22, 
1919,  in  convention  at  Chicago  and  organized 
a  new  Labour  Party  to  carry  the  whole  struggle 
into  the  field  of  politics — a  movement  which 
will  be  treated  in  another  chapter. 

"  Labour,"  says  an  official  report  of  this  con- 
vention, "  has  hurled  its  challenge  to  the  business 
and  financial  interests  that  control  the  American 
government  to-day.  The  battle  is  on." 

This  sense  that  "  the  battle  is  on  "  is  to  be 
found  among  certain  groups  in  both  camps. 
I  heard  a  great  manufacturer  arguing  that 
the  employers  were  better  prepared  at  this 
time  to  fight  than  they  ever  would  be  again. 
They  had  surpluses  from  prosperous  years: 
and  a  strike  now  would  "  cost  only  about  half 
as  much  as  it  would  in  an  ordinary  year  "  on 


6  THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

account  of  savings  in  income  and  excess  profit 
taxation. 

On  the  other  hand  I  heard  several  labour 
leaders  argue  that  they  were  in  a  better  position 
to  fight  now  than  later,  owing  to  the  national 
shortage  of  labour.  There  was  now  no  surplus 
from  which  employers  could  draw  strike- 
breakers. 

Reference  is  here  made  to  the  position  of  two 
large  sections  of  the  labour  movement :  but  there 
exist,  as  every  one  knows,  still  more  radical 
groups,  smaller  but  noisier,  which  are  for  various 
kinds  of  "  direct  action."  There  was  never  be- 
fore in  America  such  a  number  of  revolutionary 
groups,  or  so  widespread  a  propaganda  of  radi- 
calism. 

These  conditions  are  not  set  forth  with  any 
desire  to  be  alarmist.  There  are  strong  counter- 
currents  and  reconstructive  movements  among 
both  employers  and  employees — which  will  be 
treated  in  later  chapters — but  we  ought  above 
everything  to  face  the  situation  honestly  and 
frankly.  It  is  only  by  recognizing  the  problem 
which  confronts  us  that  we  shall  be  able  to 
deal  with  it. 

Another  disturbing  factor  in  the  situation — in 
some  ways  the  most  disturbing  of  all — has  been 
the  impotency  of  the  government  in  meeting 
these  industrial  crises.  Both  sides  seem  equally 


critical,  if  not  contemptuous,  of  Congress;  both 
sides  have  refused  to  accede  to  the  requests  of 
the  President.  The  steel  workers  would  not 
delay  their  strike  even  for  two  weeks  until  the 
President's  industrial  commission  could  sit.  On 
the  other  hand  Judge  Gary  refused  the  Presi- 
dent's request  for  a  conference  with  the  labour 
leaders. 

In  the  case  of  the  coal  strike  the  govern- 
ment through  the  Attorney  General  announced 
that  "  the  full  power  of  the  government  "  would 
be  used  to  save  the  country  from  a  fuel  famine. 
Nevertheless  coal  was  not  mined:  factories  were 
closed,  railroad  transportation  was  crippled:  the 
country  suffered  acutely.  Coal  strike  leaders 
were  enjoined  by  the  federal  court:  but  the 
injunction  produced  no  coal.  Congress  investi- 
gated the  steel  strike:  it  had  not  the  slightest 
effect  upon  the  resumption  in  the  production  of 
steel.  The  recent  cessation  of  the  coal  strike  was 
no  settlement  at  all :  only  a  postponement  of  the 
controversy. 

The  effort  of  the  government  to  get  the 
parties  to  the  controversy  together  to  formulate 
some  general  plan  of  compromise — at  the  Octo- 
ber Industrial  Conference — failed  utterly.  A 
new  Commission  of  Seventeen  appointed  by  Mr. 
Wilson  was  later  summoned  to  Washington, 
to  devise  some  plan  whereby  in  his  own  words, 


8  THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

"  the  public  will  not  suffer  at  the  hands  of 
either  class." 

This  commission  was  made  up  of  a  very  able 
and  distinguished  group  of  public  men,  includ- 
ing several  former  governors  and  cabinet  secre- 
taries. Mr.  Herbert  Hoover  was  a  member. 
And  yet  before  the  commission  had  its  first 
meeting  the  labour  groups  had  expressed  their 
disapproval  of  it  because  it  had  no  representa- 
tive of  labour  upon  it. 

The  labour  situation  upon  the  railroads  has 
also  been  in  a  highly  unstable  condition,  with  the 
breach  widening  between  Congress  and  the 
powerful  railroad  brotherhoods.  The  railroad 
unions  were  opposed  to  the  plans  for  re- 
turning the  railroads  to  private  control:  and 
have  been  upon  the  point,  several  times,  of 
striking. 

In  this  crisis  the  public,  which  is  the  principal 
sufferer,  grows  confused  and  impatient.  Pro- 
duction suffers  at  a  time  when  abundant  pro- 
duction, not  only  for  America  but  for  the  whole 
world,  was  never  so  necessary.  Prices  mount 
higher  and  higher.  A  strong  tendency  exists 
to  deal  with  problems  of  immense  complexity 
and  difficulty  either  by  hasty  legislation,  or  crude 
force. 

Never  was  there  such  need  for  accurate  in- 
formation, and  patient  action.  A  vast  mass  of 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  9 

detail  regarding  strikes  and  industrial  disturb- 
ances is  daily  presented  to  us — detail  which  few 
ordinary  busy  human  beings  can  possibly  piece 
into  a  picture  of  the  whole  scene.  We  cannot 
see  the  forest  for  the  trees :  nor  the  news  for  the 
headlines.  One  of  the  most  conscientious  editors 
in  the  country  told  me  that  he  did  not  know 
until  some  time  after  the  steel  strike  began  that 
the  twelve-hour  day  and  the  seven-day  week  were 
so  common  still  in  the  steel  industry:  and  that 
it  was  a  week  or  more  after  the  coal  strike  began 
that  he  found  out  that  the  demand  for  a  five- 
day  week  of  six  hours  a  day — which  seemed  so 
astounding  and  unreasonable — would,  if  it  were 
introduced,  actually  mean  a  slightly  longer 
average  working  week  than  the  miners  of 
America  have  had  during  the  past  few  years. 
Over  and  over  again,  in  examining  this  un- 
stable industrial  situation,  one  feels  as  he  did  at 
Paris,  during  the  Peace  Conference.  There  is 
the  same  "  slump  "  from  the  high  spirit  and 
noble  idealism  which  characterized  the  war 
period.  Never  was  there  such  unity  between 
labour  and  capital  as  there  was  in  America 
during  the  war,  never  such  a  spirit  of  co- 
operation, never  so  little  regard  for  profit,  never 
so  great  a  concern  for  generous  service  and  high 
production.  It  was  the  marvel  of  the  whole 
world.  I  was  in  England  during  the  spring  of 


10         THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

1918  and  know  how  widely  the  British  press 
published  the  records  made  by  us  in  shipbuilding 
and  other  industries  through  the  co-operation 
of  employers  and  their  workmen.  But  the  mo- 
ment the  war  ceased  the  same  disintegration  took 
place  in  industrial  relationships  in  America  as 
we  saw  at  Paris  between  the  nations.  The 
bottom  fell  out  of  idealism!  The  great  moment 
had  passed,  there  had  been  no  miracle,  we  were 
back  at  the  old  controversies,  selfish  interests 
were  again  rampant,  and  the  struggle  was 
sharper  than  ever  before. 

We  are  passing  through  much  the  same 
psychological  process  in  getting  a  new  under- 
standing between  labour  and  capital  as  we  are 
in  getting  a  League  of  Nations.  Much  the 
same  forces  are  at  work:  the  same  obstinate 
reactionary  elements,  the  same  unreasonable 
radicalism.  We  are  trembling  upon  the  thin 
edge,  /n  both  problems,  between  organization 
and  anarchy.  Which  way  are  we  going?  Is  it 
to  be  confusion  and  anarchy  and  war — or  is  it 
to  be  good  order,  and  organization,  and  co- 
operation? 

In  both  cases  almost  every  one  agrees  that  we 
cannot  go  back  to  the  old.  But  can  we  go  on 
to  the  new?  Are  we  brave  enough?  Are  we 
clear-sighted  enough?  Our  record,  so  far,  re- 
garding future  international  relationships,  is  not 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  11 

reassuring.  Will  we  do  better  with  our  equally 
difficult  internal  problems?  We  know,  or  think 
we  know,  pretty  well  what  to  do  in  interna- 
tional affairs.  Almost  every  one  agrees  to  some 
kind  of  a  League  of  Nations.  Are  we  anywhere 
nearly  as  clear  about  the  industrial  problem? 

The  prime  difficulty  in  this  crisis,  as  it  was  in 
Paris,  is  the  want  of  proper  publicity.  The 
great  American  public  does  not  understand  the 
situation. 

I  felt  over  and  over  again  at  Paris  that  if 
one  who  had  been  there  could  sit  down  with  a 
group  of  his  neighbours  and  explain  the  whole 
situation,  present  the  difficulties  involved,  de- 
scribe the  dangers  of  drifting  without  a  con- 
structive purpose,  he  could  show  them  why,  even 
though  the  treaty  was  defective  in  many  ways, 
it  was  profoundly  necessary  to  get  some  organi- 
zation at  work,  some  league  in  being  to  steady 
the  world. 

I  have  had  exactly  the  same  conviction  regard- 
ing the  present  industrial  situation  in  America. 
It  is  based  upon  the  same  solid  faith  in  the 
essential  good  sense  of  the  American  people. 
If  they  can  only  see  the  situation,  as  it  presents 
itself  in  some  of  the  great  industrial  centres, 
where  strikes  have  been  raging;  if  they  can  only 
know  what  the  issues  really  are  as  interpreted 
by  leaders  on  both  sides  of  the  great  con- 


12        THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

troversy;  if  they  can  only  understand  how  in- 
tensely human  the  problems  are,  how  full  of 
the  common  stuff  of  life;  if  they  can  be  shown 
where  the  truly  reconstructive  experimentation  is 
going  on  and  who  are  the  thoughtful  leaders 
on  both  sides, — if  the  American  people  can  see 
and  know  and  understand  these  things  they  will 
decide  aright  regarding  them. 

It  is  with  these  conditions,  and  this  need,  in 
view,  that  the  following  chapters  have  been  writ- 
ten— to  present  a  survey,  for  the  general  reader, 
of  the  present  industrial  crisis,  and  the  various 
reconstructive  experiments  now  under  way  to 
meet  it. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  INDUSTRIAL  CRISIS  AS  IT  APPEARS  TO  THE 
CAPITALIST-EMPLOYER 

IT  is  important,  in  approaching  the  prob- 
lem of  industrial  unrest  which  now  con- 
fronts America,  to  understand  first  how  it 
looks  from  above  to  the  employer.    In  order  to 
present  this  point  of  view  clearly  I  am  using 
the  explanatory  example  of  Gary,  Indiana,  one 
of  the  centres  of  the  recent  steel  strike.    In  the 
following  chapter  I  shall  show  how  the  same 
conditions  appear  to  the  workers. 

It  is  much  easier  to  get  at  the  point  of  view 
of  the  employer  in  the  steel  industry  than  it  is 
to  get  at  the  point  of  view  of  the  workers,  for 
it  is  quite  definitely  the  expression  of  one  man 
— Judge  Gary,  the  head  of  the  United  States 
Steel  Corporation.  It  is  a  clear-cut,  far-sighted, 
logically-expressed  point  of  view,  whereas  the 
voice  of  the  workers  is  confused  and  vague:  a 
multitudinous  murmur,  as  diverse  as  Babel,  with 
as  many  opinions  as  a  town-meeting.  Be  as 
conscientious  as  you  like  in  making  your  in- 
quiries and  you  are  never  quite  sure  you  have 
got  it  all.  Judge  Gary  knows  exactly  what 

18 


14        THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

he  wants:  the  workers  are  profoundly  restless, 
without  any  one  clear  idea  of  what  they  want. 
Not  only  ignorance  and  foreignness  but  real 
differences  of  view  divide  and  confuse  them. 
Judge  Gary's  position  is  based  upon  experience 
and  tradition:  but  the  workers  want  something 
new,  they  are  pressing  forward  into  an  undis- 
covered country.  Judge  Gary,  representing  the 
group  having  power  and  place,  desires  security: 
the  workers,  having  neither,  want  change. 

There  are,  indeed,  other  voices,  and  powerful 
counter-currents  among  employers  in  American 
industry — even  in  the  steel  industry  as  I  shall 
show  later.  John  D.  Rockefeller,  Jr.,  and 
Charles  M.  Schwab  are  far  from  seeing  eye  to 
eye  with  Judge  Gary.  Nevertheless  in  the  re- 
cent controversy  Judge  Gary  was  the  type- 
defender,  the  accepted  spokesman,  of  the  entire 
industry.  No  other  important  witness  repre- 
senting the  employing  side  of  the  steel  industry 
was  heard  by  the  Senate  Committee.  His  stand 
was  supported  by  the  Iron  and  Steel  Institute, 
which  represents  the  entire  steel  industry  in 
America.  He  was  commended  for  his  position 
by  J.  P.  Morgan,  the  most  powerful  financier 
in  America.  Even  some  o|  the  strong  men  in 
the  steel  industry  who  differed  sharply  with 
Judge  Gary  in  regard  to  his  policies  or  prac- 
tices, came  to  his  support  in  this  emergency. 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  15 

I  have  a  copy  of  a  letter  from  a  steel  master 
connected  with  an  independent  company,  in 
which  he  says: 

"  At  the  greatest  personal  sacrifice,  both  in 
friendship  and  in  money,  for  the  past  twenty- 
five  years,  I  have  waged  an  unceasing  warfare 
against  the  steel  corporation  on  the  question  of 
the  seven-day  week,  the  twelve-hour  day,  and 
the  autocratic  methods  of  dealing  with  workmen, 
but  in  the  present  struggle  my  sympathies  are 
entirely  with  Judge  Gary." 

Boiled  down,  the  position  of  this  steel  master 
is  that  the  recent  conflict  was  really  a  revolu- 
tionary struggle  for  the  control  of  the  steel 
industry  on  the  part  of  organized  labour:  he 
was,  therefore,  with  Judge  Gary.  Now  that  the 
employers  have  won  the  strike  he  is  for  begin- 
ning a  harder  fight  than  ever  against  what  he 
calls  "  these  relics  of  barbarism  "  —meaning  the 
twelve-hour  day,  the  seven-day  week,  and  the 
refusal  to  permit  workmen  to  organize  and 
bargain  collectively.  Indeed,  in  the  company  he 
represents,  the  men  have  been  encouraged  to 
form  shop  committees  and  to  co-operate  with  the 
management. 

Judge  Gary's  leadership  was  accepted  by  the 
entire  steel  industry  not  alone  because  of  the 
enormous  power  of  the  United  States  Steel 
Corporation — the  general  policies  of  which  must 


16        THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

and  do  set  the  pace  for  the  entire  steel  industry 
in  America — but  because  of  his  sheer  ability. 
It  is  not  for  nothing  that  he  is  at  the  head  of 
the  greatest  business  corporation  in  the  world, 
with  property  worth  $2,250,000,000  (his  own 
figures)  and  having  270,000  employees.  He 
not  only  has  this  enormous  power,  and  is  con- 
scious of  having  it,  but  he  knows  with  pene- 
trating clearness  what  he  wants  to  do  with  it. 

"  While  I  have  a  good  deal  of  authority  and 
power,"  he  told  the  Senate  Committee,  "  I  use 
the  same  very  sparingly,  I  am  in  the  habit  of 
consultation." 

No  one  who  touches  the  steel  industry  at  any 
point  fails  to  become  conscious  of  this  pervasive 
authority.  Though  the  power-house  may  be 
distant,  no  one  who  makes  a  contact  anywhere, 
fails  to  get  a  shock.  I  had  such  an  experience 
myself — which  I  tell  in  no  spirit  whatever  of 
criticism,  but  merely  to  illuminate  the  point  I 
am  making.  When  I  went  to  the  city  of  Gary 
to  look  into  the  strike  situation  I  was  as  anxious 
to  understand  the  point  of  view  of  the  manage- 
ment as  I  was  that  of  the  workers.  So  I  asked 
quite  directly  if  I  might  see  the  mills  and  talk 
with  some  of  the  superintendents  and  foremen. 
They  seemed  astonished:  and  referred  me  to  the 
headquarters  of  the  subsidiary  corporation  at 
Chicago.  So  I  went  there:  and  found  that  no 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  17 

observer  had  been  allowed  to  enter  the  mills 
since  the  strike  began:  and  that  it  was  impos- 
sible for  any  one  to  talk  about  the  situation  with- 
out Judge  Gary's  personal  permission. 

"But  how  am  I  going  to  get  your  point  of 
view?  Judge  Gary  has  complained  that  in- 
vestigators present  only  the  workers'  side.  How 
can  I  get  your  side  if  I  can  see  nothing,  and  no 
one  will  talk  to  me  ? " 

I  told  what  I  was  trying  to  do  and  what  for. 
Judge  Gary  was  reached  by  long-distance  tele- 
phone in  New  York — and  I  was  enabled,  then, 
to  talk  with  the  representatives  of  the  corpora- 
tion at  Chicago  and  at  Gary,  and  to  visit  the 
mills. 

But  to  a  remarkable  degree  these  men  I  talked 
with,  and  very  able  men  they  are,  echoed  Judge 
Gary's  views.  They  would  give  facts,  but  would 
express  no  opinions  whatever  of  their  own.  It 
is  a  wonderfully  disciplined  organization  that 
Judge  Gary  has  created.  It  speaks  as  one  man. 

As  to  the  attitude  of  the  corporation  toward 
labour — and  I  am  trying  now  to  exhibit  the 
industry  fairly  as  it  looks  from  above, — one  of 
the  foremen  at  Gary  seemed  to  me  to  strike  a 
kind  of  keynote: 

"  Judge  Gary,"  he  said,  "  knows  far  better 
what  is  good  for  these  workingmen,  mostly  igno- 
rant foreigners,  than  they  know  themselves." 


18        THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

Let  me  develop  this  a  little  further  from 
Judge  Gary's  own  testimony  before  the  Senate 
Committee.  As  I  said,  he  knows  his  power. 

"  I  recognize,"  he  testified,  "  that  the  power 
of  concentrated  capital  necessarily  involves  the 
power  to  do  more  or  less  harm.  I  recognize  the 
fact  personally  that  concentrated  capital  has  the 
advantage  over  a  single  individual,  if  the  con- 
centrated capital  is  in  the  hands  of  dishonest  and 
unfair  men." 

This  point  of  view  leads  directly  to  the  very 
heart  of  Judge  Gary's  attitude  toward  labour. 
Recognizing  the  power  of  concentrated  capital 
for  good  or  evil,  he  desires  to  do  good,  as  he 
sees  the  good.  Absolute  power  is  t*  remain  in 
the  hands  of  the  employer — but  the  employer 
must  use  it  wisely  and  generously.  All  his  utter- 
ances— and  like  any  man  who  believes  honestly 
and  earnestly  in  what  he  says,  he  has  been  a 
free  talker, — all  his  utterances,  and  his  testimony 
before  the  Senate  Committee,  resound  with  this 
doctrine. 

"  The  only  way  of  combating  and  overcoming 
that "  —the  "  wave  of  unrest  in  certain  loca- 
tions," he  said  to  the  presidents  of  the  subsidiary 
companies  of  the  United  States  Steel  Corpora- 
tion on  January  21,  1919,  "  is  for  the  employers, 
the  capitalists,  those  having  the  highest  education, 
the  greatest  power  and  influence,  to  so  manage 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  19 

their  own  affairs  that  there  will  be  left  no  just 
ground  for  criticism." 

A  little  later  in  the  same  address  he  discloses 
vividly  his  whole  policy  toward  the  workers. 
This  should  be  read  carefully: 

"  Make  the  Steel  Corporation  a  good  place  for 
them   (the  workers)   to  work  and  live.     Don't 
let  the  families  go  hungry  or  cold;  give  them 
playgrounds  and  parks  and  schools  and  churches 
pure  water  to  drink,  every  opportunity  to  keep 
clean,  places  of  enjoyment,  rest  and  recreation 
treating  the  whole  thing  as  a  business  proposi* 
tion;  drawing  the  line  so  that  you  are  just  anc 
generous  and  yet  at  the  same  time  keeping  your 
position  and  permitting  others  to  keep  theirs, 
retaining  the  control  and  management  of  your 
affairs,  keeping  the  whole  thing  in  your  own 
hands,  but  nevertheless  with  due  consideration 
to  the  rights  and  interests  of  all  others,  who  may 
be  affected  by  your  management." 

This  is  the  very  bony  structure  of  his  philos- 
ophy: and  Judge  Gary  is  one  of  the  rare  men 
who  has  tried  to  practise  all  he  preaches.  The 
Steel  Corporation  has  spent  millions  of  dollars 
in  various  forms  of  welfare  work — forms  so  in- 
teresting and  so  significant  in  many  ways, — the 
prevention  of  accidents,  the  pension  system,  and 
the  encouragement  of  stock  ownership  by  the 
workers — that  I  shall  enlarge  upon  them  in 


20        THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

another  chapter.  He  has  also  "  treated  the 
whole  thing  as  a  business  proposition."  He  told 
the  students  of  Trinity  College  in  June,  1919, 
that  "  It  pays  big,  in  dollars  and  cents,  for  the 
employer  to  maintain  working  conditions  which 
are  beneficial  to  the  health  and  disposition  of  the 
employee." 

He  has  also  adhered  from  the  beginning  with 
singleness  of  purpose  to  the  principle  he  lays 
down  for  his  subsidiary  presidents  of  "  keeping 
the  whole  thing;  in  their  own  hands." 

This  principle  forms,  indeed,  the  basis  of  his 
attitude  toward  unionism  in  his  plants  and  ex- 
plains his  refusal  to  meet  or  deal  upon  any  terms 
with  representatives  of  organized  labour.  His 
logic  is  clear.  If  once  it  is  admitted  that 
unionized  workmen  may  have  any  say  regarding 
their  conditions,  the  whole  fabric  of  his  philos- 
ophy begins  to  crumble.  Judge  Gary  is  not  a 
weak  man,  and  not  muddle-headed:  he  saw  the 
issue  from  the  very  beginning,  and  has  never 
swerved  in  his  course.  He  has  the  immense 
advantage,  as  a  leader,  of  a  perfectly  clear  and 
logical  position, — and  one  concerning  which  he  is 
absolutely  sure  of  himself.  He  believes  it  as  one 
believes  a  religious  dogma.  He  believes  that  if 
you  let  unionism  begin  anywhere,  it  will  meau 
more  and  more  power  to  the  workers  and  finally 
the  "  closed  shop."  It  is  nothing  to  him  that  the 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  21 

strike  leaders  and  Mr.  Gompers  declare  that  the 
strike  is  not  for  a  "  closed  shop  " — he  will  not 
have  even  the  camel's  head  in  the  tent.  To  him 
such  a  change  in  the  tried  system  which  he 
knows,  such  a  division  of  control  even  in  one 
department  of  the  industry,  not  only  threatens 
the  power  of  the  capitalist-employer,  but  makes 
for  confusion  and  lowered  production.  He  cites 
the  English  situation  as  an  example  of  this  and 
bids  us  beware  of  it.  So  he  is  against  the  whole 
movement,  root  and  branch:  for  it  is  to  him  the 
beginning  of  revolution. 

The  corollary  of  his  principles,  of  course,  is 
exactly  what  his  foremen  at  Gary  told  me,  that 
he  knows  better  what  is  good  for  the  workman 
than  the  workman  himself  knows.  He  tells 
the  Senate  Committee  that  unionism  "  is  not  a 
good  thing  for  either  the  employer  or  the  em- 
ployee." 

"  We  know  what  the  rights  of  our  employees 
are,"  he  said  in  an  address,  "  and  we  feel  obli- 
gated and  take  pleasure  in  knowing  that  we  are 
at  all  times  doing  all  we  can  for  the  people  in 
our  employ." 

"  How  did  you  know,"  asked  Senator  Walsh, 
in  the  Senate  inquiry,  "  that  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands of  your  employees  were  content  and  satis- 
fied?" 

"I  know  it,"  said  Judge  Gary,  "because  I 


22        THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

make  it  my  particular  business  all  the  time  to 
know  the  frame  of  mind  of  our  people.  .  .  . 
My  instructions  regarding  the  treatment  of  the 
men  are  absolutely  positive." 

It  follows  then,  that  the  strike,  which  was  a 
great  surprise  and  shock  to  Judge  Gary,  was  not 
due  to  his  workers,  not  due  to  any  grievances 
upon  their  part — for  his  instructions  regarding 
their  good  treatment  were  "  absolutely  positive," 
— but  to  outside  agitators  and  revolutionaries, 
and  to  foreigners — as  he  repeatedly  tells  the 
Senate  Committee. 

Similarly  when  the  subject  of  the  twelve-hour 
day,  the  seven-day  week,J  the  "  long  turn,"  and 
the  like,  came  up  for  discussion  before  the 
Senate  Committee,  he  was  forced  by  the  logic 
of  his  own  position — for  he  had  said  that  he 
knew  at  all  times  the  frame  of  mind  of  his 
employees — to  declare  that  his  workmen  really 
wanted  the  long  day  and  Sunday  work— 
although  most  of  the  workmen  who  testified  be- 
fore the  Senate  Committee,  and  there  were  many 
of  them,  complained  of  the  long  hours  and  the 
Sunday  work. 

"  The  question  of  hours,"  Judge  Gary  tells 
the  Committee  "  has  been  largely  a  question  of 
wishes,  of  desire,  on  the  part  of  the  employees 
themselves."  They  want  them  because  they 
"  want  more  compensation." 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  23 

So  much  for  the  industry  as  it  looks  in  its 
broader  aspects  from  above — to  the  only  spokes- 
man among  the  employers.  Taking  up,  specific- 
ally, the  twelve-hour  day  complaint,  the  em- 
ployers argue  against  change  from  a  two-shift 
to  a  three-shift  basis  on  account  of  the  immense 
cost  entailed.  It  would  require  at  once  a  large 
increase  in  the  number  of  workmen  employed, 
when  the  labour  supply  in  America  is  already 
dangerously  short:  and  in  most  steel-towns  the 
housing  is  far  from  sufficient  for  such  added 
population.  There  is  great  difficulty  also  in 
making  wage  readjustments;  for  if  the  workers 
go  to  an  eight-hour  day  and  expect  twelve-hours 
pay  for  it — and  they  cannot  live  on  much  less — 
it  means  an  enormous  addition  to  the  labour-cost 
of  steel.  The  eight-hour  day  has  already  been 
introduced  in  a  number  of  American  steel 
mills,  though  in  none  of  those  owned  by  the 
United  States  Steel  Corporation:  and  it  is 
universal  in  Englanq! — and  has  been  for  many 
years. 

Another  thing  that  disturbs  the  employers 
profoundly — and  I  am  trying  to  show  how  the 
situation  looks  and  feels  to  them — is  what  seems 
the  utterly  wild  demand  of  the  more  radical 
groups  of  labour  not  only  to  a  voice  in  settling 
labour  questions  (which  is  all  that  the  conserva- 
tive labour  movement  has  asked  in  the  past)  but 


24        THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

in  the  management  of  the  industry  itself.  They 
assert  that  the  whole  labour  movement  is  being 
permeated  with  these  dangerous  ideas:  several 
of  them  told  me  that  they  had  formerly  held 
Gompers  in  high  esteem  as  a  conservative  labour 
leader,  but  that  he  now  seemed  to  have  yielded  to 
the  radical  element.  They  made  a  great  point 
— Judge  Gary  did  in  his  Senate  testimony — 
of  the  leadership  of  such  men  as  William  Z. 
Foster,  who  was  formerly  a  radical  syndicalist, 
and  a  member  of  the  I.  W.  W.  They  have  had 
reprinted  and  distributed  widely  Foster's  small 
red  book.  I  had  it  offered  to  me  four  different 
times  in  as  many  days — to  show  what  labour 
is  after. 

They  see  clearly  the  enormous  complexity  and 
delicacy  of  the  industrial  mechanism  they  have 
built  up.  They  see  the  complicated  technical 
processes  in  their  industry — I  visited  at  Gary 
the  huge  establishment  where  the  by-products 
of  the  coking  ovens  are  reduced  into  various 
valuable  oils  and  chemicals — they  see  the  im- 
mense intricacy  of  their  organization  for  digging 
and  shipping  the  ore  and  the  coal  and  for  manu- 
facturing and  selling  their  products  from  China 
to  Peru.  They  know  how  little  it  takes  to  throw 
this  delicate  mechanism  out  of  gear.  The  idea, 
then,  of  crowds  of  ignorant  workers,  who  have 
no  knowledge  of  the  problems  involved,  no  train- 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  25 

ing  to  deal  with  them,  breaking  in  with  extreme 
demands  for  a  share  or  a  control  of  the  manage- 
ment seems  wildly  destructive  and  disastrous. 
They  fear  it  desperately — and  exhibit  as  a  proof 
of  the  reasonableness  of  their  fear  what  has 
happened  in  Russia.  They  regard  it  not  only 
as  meaning  the  destruction  of  their  own  power, 
and  of  the  organization  which  they  have  built  up 
so  painfully  through  so  many  years,  but  as  a 
complete  overthrow  of  our  institutions.  The 
solid  earth  of  traditions,  economic  practises,  legal 
regulations — their  very  earth  seems  crumbling 
under  their  feet.  I  am  trying  here  to  show  how 
the  situation  really  looks  and  feels  from  above. 
It  is  this  feeling  that  has  brought  so  large  a 
number  of  employers,  many  of  whom  do  not 
agree  with  his  policies,  to  the  support  of  Judge 
Gary. 

One  of  the  more  moderate  employers  said  to 
me:  "  We  probably  made  a  mistake  in  not  sooner 
establishing  a  basis  of  real  co-operation  with  our 
men:  but  that  is  past:  and  now  that  the  issue 
has  come  in  the  form  it  has,  we've  got  to  stand 
by  Judge  Gary." 

One  unfortunate  effect  of  the  present  crisis 
has  been  to  drive  both  sides  to  extremes.  The 
employers'  group  has  undoubtedly  been  moving 
toward  the  extreme  position  of  Judge  Gary :  and 
the  labour  group  has  undoubtedly  been  moving 


26        THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

away  from  Mr.  Gompers  toward  the  more  radi- 
cal leadership.  But  there  are  also  tremendous 
counter-influences  at  work,  and  many  quiet  re- 
constructive experiments — which  I  shall  describe 
later. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  INDUSTRIAL  CRISIS  AS  IT  APPEARS  TO  THE 
WORKER 

HAVING  examined,  in  the  previous 
chapter,  the  point  of  view  of  the  em- 
ployer-capitalist in  the  steel  industry, 
I  wish  now  to  show  how  the  same  conditions 
appear  from  below  to  the  workers.  It  is  only 
as  one  tries  to  understand  how  the  worker  feels 
and  thinks:  his  own  actual  point  of  view:  that 
we  can  get  at  the  problem. 

When  I  went  to  Gary  to  make  inquiries  about 
the  steel  strike  I  had  in  mind  the  twelve  demands 
made  by  the  national  leaders  when  the  men 
walked  out  on  September  22,  1919,  but  I  heard 
only  two  discussed  with  any  emphasis  either  by 
the  workers  or  the  management. 

First,  the  twelve-hour  day. 

Second,  the  right  to  organize  and  to  bargain 
collectively  with  the  employer. 

The  twelve-hour  day  is  a  very  real  thing  in  the 
life  of  Gary :  and  I  tried  in  a  number  of  specific 
cases  to  find  out  what  it  means.  Here  is  the 
exact  daily  schedule  of  a  skilled  American  work- 
man who  does  eleven  hours  a  day  during  one 

27 


28        THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

week  and  then  thirteen  hours  a  night  during  the 
next.  He  has  his  Sunday  free,  though  many 
men  in  the  steel  industry  still  have  the  seven- 
day  week:  nor  does  he  do  the  "long-turn"  of 
twenty-four  hours  continuous  service  when  the 
change  from  day  to  night  work  takes  place — a 
practice  still  persisting  in  some  centres  of  the 
steel  industry.  In  order  to  get  cheap  rent — 
for  there  is  a  great  shortage  of  housing  in  Gary 
— this  man  lives  four  miles  out  from  the  mill. 
He  must,  therefore,  in  order  to  be  on  time,  get 
up  early. 

4 :  30  A.M.  he  arises  and  gets  breakfast. 

5 : 10  he  leaves  home. 

5:55  he  reaches  the  mill. 

6 :  00  he  begins  work. 

He  is  on  duty  steadily  until  five  o'clock  in 
the  afternoon.  There  is  no  stoppage  for  the 
luncheon  hour,  but  he  has  time,  during  waiting 
periods,  to  get  something  to  eat.  He  arrives 
home  at  six  o'clock:  soon  after  he  finishes  his 
supper  he  must  go  to  bed,  for  at  4 : 30  in  the 
morning  he  must  be  up  again. 

During  the  night  shift  he  gets  up  soon  after 
three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  starts  work  at 
five  o'clock,  works  thirteen  hours,  until  six  in 
the  morning,  is  home  at  seven,  and  in  bed  before 
eight.  Including  the  time  it  takes  to  go  and 
come  from  the  mill  this  man's  time  is  really 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  29 

commanded  for  some  fourteen  hours  every 
day. 

He  has  been  at  this  work  all  his  life;  he  now 
makes  $7.87  a  day. 

"  I  don't  live,"  he  said,  "  I  just  exist — work 
and  sleep.  I  don't  get  any  time  to  see  my 
family.  I  can't  go  to  any  entertainments  with- 
out taking  it  out  of  my  sleep :  and  I  am  too  tired 
to  go  to  church  on  Sunday,  or  to  do  anything 
else  but  lie  around." 

Another  striker,  a  Pole,  said  to  me  in  broken 
English : 

"  They  tell  us  go  to  school,  learn  American. 
When  we  get  time?  Twelve  hours  a  day! 
What  the  hell  they  want!  " 

Remember,  I  am  trying  to  show  just  how  it 
looks  from  below. 

According  to  Judge  Gary's  testimony  before 
the  Senate  Committee  there  are  69,284  men  in 
the  mills  of  the  United  States  Steel  Corporation 
(out  of  about  270,000  employed)  now  working 
the  twelve-hour  day — and  there  are  many  thou- 
sands more  in  the  independent  companies.  Most 
of  the  workers  actually  engaged  in  the  steel  mills 
are  twelve-hour  men.  The  ten-  and  eight-hour 
men  are  mostly  in  other  branches  of  the  work, 
mines,  transportation  and  the  like.  A  great 
proportion  of  these  twelve-hour  men  are  igno- 
rant foreigners,  of  some  forty-two  nationalities 


30        THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

at  Gary  alone,  speaking  a  babel  of  tongues  and 
hitherto  unorganized  and  unorganizable. 

When  I  remarked  to  a  group  of  workers  that 
Judge  Gary  had  told  the  Senate  Committee 
that  employees  of  the  United  States  Steel  Cor- 
poration desired  a  twelve-hour  day,  and  even  a 
seven-day  week,  in  order  to  make  more  money, 
I  was  greeted  with  a  shout  of  laughter. 

"Want  it!"  said  one  of  them.  "We  can't 
help  ourselves.  The  mills  run  on  the  two-shift 
basis  and  it's  either  twelve  hours  or  quit.  Be- 
sides, at  the  rate  of  wages  per  hour  paid  by  the 
company  most  of  the  men  could  not  live  unless 
they  worked  the  long  hours." 

So  much  for  the  twelve-hour  day:  the  Senate 
Committee,  in  the  recent  conclusions,  after  in- 
vestigation, said: 

"  That  the  labourers  in  the  steel  mills  had  a 
just  complaint  relative  to  the  long  hours  of 
sendee  on  the  part  of  some  of  them  and  the  right 
to  have  that  complaint  heard  by  the  company. 

'  We  believe  where  continuous  operation  is 
absolutely  necessary  the  men  should  at  least  be 
allowed  one  day's  rest  in  each  week." 

The  other  great  complaint,  the  demand  to 
organize  and  bargain  collectively,  was  more 
complicated,  went  down  deeper  into  the  roots  of 
the  controversy.  For  if  the  workers  were 
granted  the  eight-hour^day  and  the  six-day  week, 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  31 

this  other  demand  would  not  only  persist  but 
would  probably  be  strengthened.  I  met  one 
steel-employer  who  said  to  me :  "  If  you  give  an 
inch:  if  you  let  them  discover  that  agitation  and 
organization  gets  them  anything,  you're  gone. 
Gary's  right." 

He  spoke  of  Rockefeller's  introduction  of  the 
eight-hour  day  and  shop  committees  in  his 
Colorado  plants.  "Did  it  stop  the  strike?"  he 
asked.  "  No,  they  went  out  with  all  the  others. 
So  did  the  Cambria  mills  where  they  had  com- 
pany unions.  Gary's  right." 

There  was  one  independent  mill  that  was 
scarcely  touched  by  the  strike.  It  was  looked 
upon  with  some  envy  in  the  steel  industry.  Its 
superintendent  explained  how  he  managed  his 
workmen: 

"  Catch  'em  young;  treat  'em  rough;  tell  'em 
nothing." 

So  this  question  of  unionization  and  collective 
bargaining — as  Judge  Gary  testified — was  the 
real  crux  of  the  strike.  He  saw  it  long  ago 
when  the  Steel  Corporation  was  organized:  and 
he  has  never  changed  in  his  opinion  or  in  his 
policy  of  opposition. 

The  workers  also  recognized  this  as  the  crux 
of  the  problem.  I  did  not  find  much  complaint 
of  wages  at  Gary,  for  average  wages  of  all  em- 
ployees since  1914  had  increased  from  $2.93  a 


32        THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

day  to  $6.27  per  day,  114  per  cent.,  an  increase 
a  little  larger  than  the  increase  in  the  cost  of 
living.  There  were  also  a  considerable  number 
of  workmen  at  Gary  especially  of  the  higher 
grades,  who  lived  at  low  rentals  in  company 
houses  or  who  owned  their  own  homes,  and  some 
who  had  been  assisted  by  the  corporation  in 
buying  stock.  These  were  mostly  the  more 
highly  skilled  men,  either  Americans  or  for- 
eigners who  have  been  a  long  time  in  the  country. 
These  men,  for  the  most  part,  did  not  strike  at 
all. 

I  asked  one  group  of  strikers  what  it  was, 
then,  that  they  wanted.  Every  one  of  them  had 
been  working  in  the  Gaiy  mills:  every  one  of 
them  spoke  English  well,  two  were  of  pure 
American  stock,  one  was  of  Dutch  ancestry, 
two  Irish,  one  English,  two  Serbian,  three 
Polish. 

Since  I  am  trying  to  show  exactly  how  the 
strike  looks  from  below,  I  am  going  to  put  down 
exactly  the  answers  I  got: 

"  We  are  striking  for  freedom." 

"  What  do  you  mean  by  freedom?  "  I  asked. 

"Well,  the  right  to  have  our  organizations, 
the  right  to  employ  representatives  to  act  for 
us,  just  as  the  Steel  Corporation  does,  and  the 
right  to  bargain  collectively  with  the  employers 
for  our  labour." 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  33 

I  found  this  group  of  men  very  intelligent. 
They  told  me  that  it  had  been  the  settled  policy 
of  the  steel  corporation  from  the  beginning  to 
fight  unionism  and  one  of  them  handed  me  a 
publication  containing  a  copy  of  a  resolution 
passed  by  the  Steel  Corporation  on  June  17, 
1901 — six  weeks  after  its  organization  (which 
I  have  since  verified;  it  appears  in  the  reports 
of  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Labour),  as 
follows : 

'  That  we  are  unalterably  opposed  to  any 
extension  of  union  labour  and  advise  subsidiary 
companies  to  take  firm  position  when  these  ques- 
tions come  up  and  say  that  they  are  not  going  to 
recognize  it,  that  is,  any  extension  of  unions  in 
mills  where  they  do  not  now  exist,  that  great 
care  should  be  taken  to  prevent  trouble  and  that 
they  promptly  report  and  confer  with  this 
corporation." 

While  Judge  Gary  testified  before  the  Senate 
Committee  that  men  were  never  discharged  for 
belonging  to  unions,  the  strikers  not  only  assert 
here  at  Gary,  but  witnesses  from  the  Pennsyl- 
vania mills  asserted  before  the  Senate  Com- 
mittee, that  many  such  discharges  had  been 
made. 

"  Oh,  the  foremen  don't  say :  '  You're  a  union 
man:  get  out.'  But  every  movement,  every 
whisper,  in  the  mill  is  known.  If  we  have  a  meet- 


34        THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

ing,  we  know  there  is  a  spy  inside,  or  else  the 
foremen  or  other  officials  come  and  stand  out- 
side the  hall  and  watch  the  men  go  in.  Let  a 
man  try  to  get  the  workers  together,  try  to 
organize,  and  some  day  he'll  get  his  pink  slip 
because  he  has  been  ten  minutes  late,  or  because 
he's  had  an  accident,  or  for  one  of  a  hundred 
small  excuses." 

Whatever  may  be  the  instructions  from  Judge 
Gary,  this  is  what  the  strikers  everywhere  in  the 
steel  districts  believe.  Indeed,  the  second  de- 
mand of  the  twelve  that  they  made  when  they 
struck  reads  thus :  "  Reinstatement  of  men  dis- 
charged for  union  activities,  with  pay  for  time 
lost." 

Another  thing  they  believe,  is  that  foreigners 
of  so  many  nationalities,  who  are  now  accused 
of  causing  most  of  the  trouble,  were  deliberately 
brought  in  by  the  employers  in  order  to  make 
organization  impossible.  The  difficulties  in  the 
way  of  unionizing  ignorant  men  speaking  twenty 
or  thirty  different  languages  are  of  course  al- 
most insurmountable. 

"  But  the  company  denies  this,"  I  said. 

"Of  course  they  do — but  look  at  this  adver- 
tisement." 

And  they  handed  me  an  advertisement  in  the 
Pittsburg  Gazette  Times  of  July  14,  1909 
(which  I  also  verified) : 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  <35 

"Wanted:  Sixty  tin-house  men,  tinners, 
catchers  and  helpers  to  work  in  open  shops: 
Syrians,  Poles  and  Roumanians  preferred: 
steady  employment  and  good  wages  to  men 
willing  to  work;  fare  paid  and  no  fees  charged 
for  this  work." 

They  have  a  most  extraordinary  mixture  of 
human  beings  in  Gary — forty-two  different 
nationalities,  the  Croatians  and  Poles  leading, 
with  large  numbers  of  Greeks,  Slovaks,  Rus- 
sians, Swedes,  Hungarians.  Latterly  the  Span- 
iards have  been  coming  in:  and  since  the  war, 
and  especially  since  unionism  began  to  threaten, 
many  ignorant  Negroes  and  Mexicans.  In  the 
main  mill  at  Gary  over  1,000  Negroes  are  now 
employed. 

I  asked  why  it  was,  then,  if  this  was  a  strike 
for  freedom,  that  so  many  men  went  back  to 
work  so  soon  after  the  strike  began. 

"  That's  easy  enough  to  answer.  In  the  first 
place  the  power  and  watchfulness  of  the  mana- 
gers was  such  that  we  never  could  form  a  very 
strong  union.  How  can  you  get  ignorant 
Hungarians,  Italians,  Poles,  Negroes  and  Mexi- 
cans together  and  teach  them  the  value  of  organ- 
ization when  the  dread  of  the  boss  is  always 
over  them?  And  no  sooner  does  the  strike  start 
than  the  military  comes  in  and  prevents  picket- 
ing and  large  meetings.  Many  of  these  for- 


36        THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

eigners  are  easily  frightened  by  soldiers :  they've 
had  experience  at  home.  On  the  other  hand  the 
most  intelligent  men,  who  ought  to  be  leaders, 
hold  high-paid  places,  or  are  buying  company 
houses,  or  are  getting  bonuses,  or  are  working 
for  pensions.  They  know  that  if  they  go  out 
they  lose  everything.  Since  this  strike  the  com- 
pany has  done  its  best  to  stir  up  racial  and 
national  feeling  between  the  skilled  American 
workers  and  the  Negroes  and  foreigners.  It's 
their  cue  to  keep  us  apart  and  disorganized. 
So  it  has  got  to  be  a  movement  largely  made  up 
of  the  unskilled  labourers  and  they  are  for- 
eigners. And  there  you  are.  Oh,  they  know 
their  business — the  steel  corporation!  And 
that's  what  has  made  wild  radicals  of  some 
of  the  foreigners:  they  don't  see  any  other 
way  out  except  secret  organizations  and  revolu- 
tion." 

Another  thing  these  workers  believe — and  be- 
lieve everywhere  in  the  steel  districts,  as  shown 
by  the  Senate  investigation, — is  that  the  gov- 
ernment is  somehow  against  them:  the  govern- 
ment meaning  to  many  of  the  foreigners — for 
they  know  next  to  nothing  at  all  of  American 
institutions — the  local  police.  I  am  not  entering 
into  the  question  of  whether  they  are  right  or 
wrong  but  trying  to  get  down  what  they  actually 
believe  or  feel,  for  it  is  not  upon  what  they 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  37 

ought  to  believe  and  feel  that  they  act,  but  upon 
what  they  do  believe  and  feel.  Well,  they  be- 
lieve that  the  officials  and  constabulary  are  con- 
trolled by  the  steel  companies.  In  Pennsylvania 
there  is  every  evidence  of  suppression  and  even 
violent  suppression  by  the  constabulary.  Much 
testimony  was  given  before  the  Senate  Com- 
mittee to  show  that  there  is  no  such  thing  in 
some  of  the  steel  towns  as  free  speech  or  free 
assemblage.  The  companies  assert  that  this 
control  is  necessary  to  preserve  order  and  pro- 
tect property:  but  from  below,  to  the  strikers, 
it  looks  like  oppression. 

Many  of  the  officials  in  steel  towns  are  em- 
ployees of  steel  companies.  Even  in  Gary, 
where  the  control  has  been  less  rigorous,  I  heard 
much  of  the  same  kind  of  complaint.  Whether 
the  strikers  are  right  or  wrong,  no  honest  in- 
quirer can  avoid  the  impression  that  they  feel 
themselves  suppressed.  Much  is  done  for  them 
by  the  steel  corporation:  but  of  themselves, 
either  by  political  or  social  organization,  they 
feel  that  they  are  allowed  to  have  no  say  about 
the  vital  conditions  under  which  they  work. 

"  But,"  I  argued,  "  Judge  Gary  said  to  the 
Senate  Committee  that  any  worker  or  group  of 
workers  could  make  a  complaint  and  get  it 
remedied:  that  all  superintendents  were  especi- 
ally instructed  upon  this  point." 


38        THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

.1  am  going  to  put  down  the  exact  answer  I 
got. 

"  Say,  Mister,  you  weren't  born  yesterdayf 
were  you?  What  chance  do  you  suppose  one 
'  hunkie  '  or  a  bunch  of  *  hunkies  '  would  have 
getting  to  Judge  Gary  with  a  complaint,  or 
even  getting  to  the  head  men  of  the  Illinois 
Steel  Company?  And  what  do  you  suppose 
would  happen  if  they  complained  very  often 
over  the  head  of  their  foremen  ?  Here's  the  pink 
slip  for  you  guys." 

There  are  many  other  minor  complaints — so 
the  strikers  argue — that  can  only  be  met  when 
the  workers  are  organized,  just  as  the  various 
mills  are  organized*  in  one  body,  and  can  meet 
the  employers  upon  equal  terms.  There  are  ex- 
amples of  petty  graft  and  petty  oppression  by 
foremen  upon  ignorant  workmen,  men  are  laid 
off  without  explanation  or  excuse,  the  plants 
are  closed  down  without  warning,  and  the  loss 
falls  upon  the  workers  (thirteen  per  cent  of  the 
possible  working  time  is  thus  lost  every  year  to 
the  employees). 

This  state  of  mind  at  Gary,  and  elsewhere  in 
the  steel  industry,  has  resulted  in  vast  losses  to 
every  one  concerned.  A  considerable  number  of 
foreigners  drew  their  money  from  the  postal- 
savings  bank,  sold  their  liberty  bonds,  and  went 
home  to  Europe,  thus  further  reducing  and  dis- 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  39 

organizing  the  labour  supply.  Some  of  the 
skilled  men  went  to  work  in  other  industries. 
Two  electricians,  for  example,  whom  I  met,  had 
easily  found  work  at  the  union  scale  of  a  dollar 
an  hour  in  Chicago.  The  mills  were  running 
inefficiently,  with  many  inexperienced  men,  and 
the  whole  morale  was  low:  and  this  at  a  time 
when  the  world  was  never  so  much  in  need  of 
steel  products. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  IMPUTED  CAUSES  OF  THE  UNREST 

IN  two  former  chapters  I  endeavoured  to 
exhibit    a    typical    industrial    situation    in 
America — that   at  Gary,   Indiana,   during 
the  recent  steel  strikes,  as  it  looked,  first  from 
above,  to  the  men  who  paid  the  wages,   and, 
second,  from  below,  to  the  men  who  received 
them. 

We  may  now  inquire  into  the  immediate  causes 
of  this  unrest,  as  set  forth  by  leaders  on  both 
sides  of  the  controversy.  It  is  to  be  under- 
stood that  these  are  the  immediate  and  imputed 
causes — not  necessarily  the  real  or  deeper  causes, 
which  will  be  considered  later. 

Judge  Gary  told  us  with  conviction  that  the 
great  majority  of  his  workers  were  contented, 
that  they  wanted  no  strike  and  no  union,  but 
that  they  were  incited  and  intimidated  by  "  out- 
side agitators  "  and  "  revolutionaries."  He  said 
that  alien  elements  with  radical  beliefs  were 
largely  instrumental  in  causing  the  trouble. 

'  You  think,"  asks  Senator  Kenyon,  at  the 
investigation,  "  that  this  foreign  element  is  pre- 
cipitating the  strike,  do  you  not?  " 

40 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  41 

"  I  do,"  responded  Judge  Gary. 

Mr.  Gompers,  upon  his  part,  was  equally 
clear.  He  told  us  that  the  workers  were  not 
contented,  that  they  were  compelled  to  work 
unnecessarily  long  hours,  that  they  were  not 
allowed  to  organize  or  to  have  any  voice  in  the 
determination  of  the  conditions  under  which 
they  lived :  that  the  workers  were  not  intimidated 
by  "  outside  agitators  "  or  "  revolutionaries  "  but 
suppressed  by  the  employers. 

Here,  then  is  the  very  heart  of  the  con- 
troversy. Judge  Gary  asserted  that  the  trouble 
came  from  outside  his  steel  plants  and  steel 
towns:  Mr.  Gompers  asserted  the  trouble  was 
inside  of  them.  Judge  Gary  thought  that  the 
trouble  was  imported  into  Gary  from  Washing- 
ton where  the  American  Federation  of  Labour 
has  its  headquarters,  or  from  Russia.  Mr. 
Gompers  thought  the  trouble  was  in  Gary  itself. 

The  remedies  suggested  follow  hard  upon  the 
convictions  of  each  group.  Judge  Gary — and 
a  considerable  proportion  of  the  employer  class 
in  America — believes  that  if  somehow  these  "  out- 
side agitators,"  "  revolutionaries,"  "  alien  dis- 
turbers "  could  be  squelched  all  the  trouble  would 
speedily  disappear.  So  we  have  been  seeing  re- 
cently in  America  a  number  of  extraordinary 
applications  of  this  cure.  Judge  Gary  himself, 
quite  logically  from  his  point  of  view,  refused 


42        THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

to  confer  with  "  outside  agitators  " — Mr.  Fitz- 
patrick,  Mr.  Foster  and  others.  In  Pennsyl- 
vania the  constabulary  put  them  in  jail:  refused 
to  let  them  hold  meetings.  Upon  the  belief  that 
the  ideas  that  are  disturbing  industry  came  in 
from  the  outside — from  Russia  especially — they 
raided  private  homes  and  halls  at  Gary,  and  ac- 
cording to  a  lieutenant  of  the  intelligence  de- 
partment of  the  United  States  Army,  took  away 
some  tons  of  radical  literature.  At  the  Senate 
investigation  Senator  Smith  of  Georgia  asked 
the  lieutenant  of  intelligence  who  investigated 
the  "  reds  "  of  Gary  this  question : 

Senator  Smith:  If  we  shipped  all  the  alien 
agitators  and  organizers  out  of  the  country 

Lieut.  Van  Buren  (interposing)  :  There  would 
be  no  more  trouble  at  all. 

We  are  beginning  literally  to  practise  this 
policy,  which  seems  so  easy  a  solution  to  Senator 
Smith  and  Lieut.  Van  Buren.  Already  the 
American  ship  Buford,  guarded  aboard  by 
soldiers  and  accompanied  at  sea  by  a  naval 
escort,  has  taken  some  200  of  these  alien  agita- 
tors away  from  America,  and  returned  them  to 
the  lands  from  which  they  got  their  ideas. 

This  policy  of  meeting  the  unrest  finds  a 
cruder  echo — and  yet  a  familiar  one:  I  heard  it 
often  recently  among  ordinary  comfortable 
people :  "  If  a  few  of  these  agitators  and  '  reds  ' 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  43 

were  taken  out  and  shot,  we'd  soon  get  rid  of 
the  trouble." 

Now  the  logic  of  these  remedies  is  indispu- 
tably sound:  if  the  unrest  is  caused  by  outside 
agitators,  and  by  alien  revolutionaries  as  Judge 
Gary  asserts,  then  if  you  remove  the  agitators, 
seize  and  destroy  the  literature  containing  the 
ideas,  and  prevent  meetings  in  which  they  are 
aired,  you  stop  the  unrest.  This  is  perfectly 
clear. 

So  much  for  the  employer's  view  of  the  cause 
of  the  unrest  and  the  remedy  for  it.  The  leaders 
of  the  workers,  as  I  said,  hold  the  contrary  view, 
that  the  trouble  is  inside  of  industry,  not  im- 
ported from  without:  and,  they  proceed  with  in- 
tense conviction  to  act  upon  their  belief.  They 
try  in  every  way,  by  speeches  and  publications, 
some  of  them  of  the  shrillest  and  most  revolu- 
tionary kind,  to  show  that  conditions  among 
working  people  in  America  are  dehumanizing, 
that  injustice  prevails,  that  men  have  become,  as 
their  recent  "  bill  of  rights  "  declares,  "  cogs  in 
an  industrial  system  dominated  by  machinery 
owned  and  operated  for  profit  alone."  They 
are  so  eager  to  prove  their  contention  that  they 
welcome  every  kind  of  investigation.  Judge 
Gary  profoundly  distrusts  public  inquiries  be- 
cause, as  he  told  the  Senate  Committee,  they 
"  give  opportunity  to  certain  men  to  air  their 


44        THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

views  and  get  before  the  public  certain  propa- 
ganda that  is  vicious  and  calculated  to  do  harm." 

But  the  workers  eagerly  desire  these  inquiries : 
and  in  the  case  of  the  recent  steel  strike  did  their 
best  to  get  before  the  public  the  facts,  as  they 
saw  them,  regarding  the  twelve-hour  day,  Sun- 
day work,  the  "  long-turn,"  the  speeding-up  of 
workmen,  the  denial  of  the  right  to  organize,  the 
suppression  of  free  speech  and  free  assemblage, 
and  so  on.  The  first  great  item  in  their  policy 
is  publicity:  the  second  is  organization.  The 
motive  of  the  first  is  not  only  to  stir  up  their 
own  people  but  to  get  their  case  before  the 
public:  the  motive  of  the  second  is  to  help  them- 
selves to  their  own  relief:  their  key  words,  there- 
fore, are  "  agitate  "  and  "  organize." 

Now  the  issue  that  arises  here  between  the 
two  groups  is  an  issue  of  fact :  it  is  a  question  for 
the  jury  of  the  American  people.  Is  the  trouble 
and  unrest — or  any  part  of  it,  caused  by  condi- 
tions inside  of  the  steel  towns,  inherent  in  the 
present  state  of  the  industry,  or  is  it  caused  by 
"  outside  agitators  "  and  "  alien  radicals  "? 

As  usual  in  cases  presented  to  that  great, 
impatient,  more  or  less  inattentive  jury  of  public 
opinion — which  hates  desperately  to  remain  long 
enough  away  from  private  business  really  to  hear 
the  evidence — there  is  an  enormous  amount  of 
exaggeration  on  both  sides,  extreme  statements, 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  45 

the  imputation  of  the  worst  possible  motives, 
personal  abuse.  It  is  ever  the  case  that  one 
extreme  view  tries  to  justify  itself  by  magnify- 
ing the  other  extreme  view.  Extremes  invariably 
breed  extremes.  Thus  Judge  Gary  and  the 
steel  employers  magnified  the  revolutionary  ele- 
ments among  the  workers,  which  were  in  reality 
unimportant  either  in  numbers  or  in  influence. 
They  did  their  best  to  "  play  up  "  Foster  and 
Margolis,  and  to  try  to  convince  the  jury  that 
these  men  really  represented  the  views  of 
American  labour.  More  time  was  spent  by  the 
Senate  in  examining  these  two  relatively  inconse- 
quential figures  in  the  steel  strike — Margolis, 
a  lawyer  having  no  connection  whatever  with  the 
strike  itself,  and  Foster  being  only  one  of  a 
committee — than  was  given  to  any  other  wit- 
ness except  Judge  Gary  himself.  The  steel 
employers  had  reprinted  and  circulated  widely 
among  employers,  business  men  and  editors, 
Foster's  red  pamphlet  on  Syndicalism  with  this 
inscription  on  the  outside: 

'  William  Z.  Foster,  one  of  the  authors  of 
this  book,  is  in  charge  of  the  present  campaign 
to  organize  the  steel  strikers." 

They  gave  this  pamphlet  a  far  wider  circula- 
tion than  ever  Foster  was  able  to  give  it:  they 
aroused  just  the  curiosity  about  the  ideas  which 
it  contains,  and  which  they  are  trying  to 


46        THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

combat,  that  the  radicals  themselves  failed  in 
arousing. 

Now,  I  am  not  here  going  into  Foster's  denial 
that  this  wild  book  published  nine  years  ago 
represents  his  present  beliefs — in  another  chap- 
ter I  shall  exhibit  the  true  relationship  of  radi- 
cals to  the  American  Federation  of  Labour — 
I  am  merely  illustrating  the  point  that  the 
steel,  employers  "played  up"  these  extremists: 
and  at  the  same  time  refused  to  meet  and  deal 
with  the  moderate  leaders,  who  represent  the 
great  solid  masses  of  American  labour. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  extremists  upon  the 
side  of  labour  play  exactly  the  same  game.  I- 
have  examined  recently  a  number  of  the  more 
extreme  publications  issued  by  radical  labour 
groups,  some  of  them  circulated  at  Gary, 
Indiana,  and  I  have  attended  radical  meetings 
and  heard  radical  speeches.  To  many  of  these 
extremists  Judge  Gary  is  a  very  devil:  all  capi- 
talists are  devils:  any  one  who  sees  anything 
good  in  the  "  present  system  "  is  a  "  tool."  They 
do  not  recognize  the  fact  that  an  immense  pro- 
portion of  American  industry  to-day  is  based,  so 
far  as  labour  conditions  are  concerned,  upon 
reasonable  conferences  between  employers  and 
employees :  or  that  many  employers  and 
managers  in  America  are  earnestly  and  sincerely 
endeavouring  to  work  out  new  methods  of  co- 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  47 

operation  with  their  workers, — as  I  shall  show 
later, — or  that  even  Judge  Gary  has  encouraged 
among  other  things  great  improvements  in 
safety-devices  in  his  mills — a  really  remarkable 
work. 

Conservative  extremists  thus  stimulate  radical 
extremists.  We  have  seen  employed  in  this  steel 
strike  the  now  familiar  technic  of  war.  Both 
sides  try  to  prove  atrocities:  both  sides  assert 
that  the  other  is  using  the  poison-gas  of  propa- 
ganda, and  the  dum-dum  bullets  of  intimida- 
tion. Each  side  or  a  part  of  each  side  is  doing 
its  best  to  stir  up  hatred  and  suspicion  of  the 
other — with  the  danger  always  present  that  these 
violent  views  may  involve  the  great  quiet  ma- 
jority of  both  employers  and  employees  who  are 
trying  to  work  out  humanly,  decently,  and 
patiently  the  enormously  complicated  problems 
which  confront  all  of  us. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  REAL  CAUSES  OF  THE  UNREST 

IN     this     chapter     I     shall     endeavour    to 
answer  the   question:    How   much  of   the 
trouble  and  unrest  in  American  industry  is 
caused  by  "  outside  agitators  "  and  "  alien  radi- 
cals " :  and  how  much  is  caused  by  conditions 
inside  of  industry?     Judge   Gary  thinks  that 
the  trouble,  as  I  showed  in  my  last  chapter,  is 
incited  from  outside:   Mr.   Gompers  thinks   it 
due  to  conditions  inside. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  what  Judge  Gary 
calls  "  outside  agitators  "  did  come  in  and  organ- 
ize the  steel  workers.  At  its  St.  Paul  Conven- 
tion, in  June,  1918,  the  American  Federation 
of  Labour  appointed  a  committee  headed  by 
John  Fitzpatrick,  President  of  the  Chicago 
Federation  of  Labour,  who  was  never  connected 
with  the  steel  industry  in  any  way,  to  go  into 
the  steel  towns  and  organize  the  men.  There  is 
no  doubt,  as  Judge  Gary  declares,  that  there 
are  a  few  revolutionaries  and  alien  radicals, 
some  of  them  holding  the  extremist  views,  to  be 
found  at  Gary  and  in  other  steel  towns:  there 
is  no  doubt  that  there  is  considerable  violent 

48 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  49 

"  literature  "  in  circulation  in  these  towns.  There 
is  no  doubt,  also,  after  the  workers  went  out, 
that  the  familiar  tactics  of  the  strike — persuasion 
verging  always  upon  intimidation— did  take 
place  at  Gary.  All  this  is  true. 

But  let  us  look  more  closely  at  Gary.  Here 
is  a  fine,  bright  city  of  some  80,000  people.  It 
has  an  excellent  Carnegie  library,  an  impressive 
Y.  M.  C.  A.  building,  good  churches,  superlative 
schools.  It  lives  wholly  upon  mills  owned  by  the 
United  States  Steel  Corporation.  Some  of  the 
workmen,  largely  Americans,  are  highly  skilled 
and  well-paid,  often  owning  their  own  houses, 
sometimes  having  a  few  shares  of  stock  in  the 
corporation.  But  the  great  mass  of  the  workers 
are  more  or  less  unskilled  foreigners.  There  are 
forty-two  different  nationalities,  speaking  twenty 
or  thirty  languages.  The  majority  in  the  mills 
work  twelve  hours  a  day,  and  many  seven  days 
a  week.  To  an  extent  which  at  first  amazes  the 
inquirer  these  are  young  unmarried  men.  Forty- 
five  per  cent  of  the  Servians,  forty-eight  per  cent 
of  the  Roumanians,  in  the  steel  industry  are 
single  men  (according  to  the  United  States 
labour  reports) .  Even  of  those  who  are  married, 
a  large  proportion  have  left  their  wives  at  home 
(sixty-two  per  cent  of  the  Croatians,  forty  per 
cent  of  the  Italians).  They  are  strong  boys 
or  young  men,  largely  peasants  (sixty-four  per 


50        THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

cent)  from  farms  in  southern  or  eastern  Europe. 
About  one-third  of  these  men  are  twenty-five 
years  of  age  or  under — hardly  more  than  boys — 
eighty-seven  .per  cent  are  forty-four  years  old  or 
under.  The  steel  workers  themselves  assert 
that  a  man  is  "  old  at  forty  "  in  the  steel  in- 
dustry: that  men  cannot  stand  the  strain  of  the 
long  hours  and  the  heavy -work. 

Consider  these  masses  of  young  men,  peasants, 
who  came  to  golden  America  to  make,  instantly, 
their  fortunes.  They  were  willing  to  work  all 
hours,  all  times,  where  American  workmen 
would  not  and  could  not  work ;  they  got  as  much 
money  as  possible,  in  as  short  a  time,  either  to 
bring  their  wives  over  from  Europe,  or  to  go 
back  there  with  their  earnings.  The  poorest  of 
them  lived  crowded  together  in  the  very  cheapest 
places  they  could  rent.  There  are  some  very 
poor  places  in  this  fine  town  of  Gary:  with  no 
relation  to  any  "  American  standard  of  living." 
Well,  these  men,  working  under  such  pressure, 
confused  and  divided,  could  not  organize,  had 
no  way  of  expressing  themselves.  But  they 
could  get  drunk.  Before  Indiana  went  dry 
Gary  had  probably  the  largest  number  of 
saloons  to  the  population  of  any  city  in  the 
United  States:  solid  blocks  of  them.  A  popu- 
lation of  young,  unmarried  men,  away  from 
home,  working  under  high  strain  in  an  un- 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  51 

familiar  and  dangerous  industry,  without  amuse- 
ment or  diversion — this  was  the  natural  outlet. 
There  may  be  those  who  think  prohibition  dis- 
couragesr  economic  unrest.  I  do  not.  I  believe 
it  is  one  of  the  causes  of  it:  for  it  has  removed 
the  great .  deadener  of  human  trouble — and 
human  ambition — alcohol, .  and  lias  left  time  to 
the  workers  to  talk  and  meet  and  read:  and 
money  to  buy  publications  and  support  organi- 
zations. 

Consider,  also,  what  the  war  did  when  it 
came.  In  the  first  place  it  brought  the  entire 
working  force  at  Gary  under  an  iron  regime. 
Workmen  could  not  go  and  come  freely  between 
Europe  and  America  as  they  had  always  done, 
and  they  were  worked  harder  and  longer  than 
ever:  but  on  the  other  hand  they  got  more 
money  and  had  steadier  work  than  ever  before 
in  their  lives,  for  the  steel  trust  raised  wages 
eight  times  during  the  war. 

This,  however,  was  only  a  minor  result  of  the 
war.  Consider  what  they  were  taught  day  after 
day  during  the  struggle.  It  was  not  what  was 
put  into  their  pockets  but  what  was  put  into 
their  heads  that  counted.  They  were  told  that 
this  was  a  war  for  democracy  and  that  when  it 
was  over  everything  would  be  different  and 
better.  The  War  Labour  Board  at  Washington 
laid  down  the  broadest  and  most  advanced  char- 


52        THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

ter  of  the  rights  of  labour  ever  laid  down  in 
America.  President  Wilson  said  that  after  the 
war  "  there  must  be  a  genuine  democratization 
of  industry  based  upon  a  full  recognition  of  the 
right  of  those  who  work,  in  whatever  rank,  to 
participate  in  some  organic  way  in  every  de- 
cision which  directly  affects  their  welfare  or  the 
part  they  are  to  play  in  industry." 

Never  before  were  workmen  in  the  steel  towns 
so  courted:  so  distinctly  made  to  feel  that  they 
were  a  part,  and  really  an  essential  part,  of  this 
great  American  movement.  For  a  moment  a 
kind  of  thrill  of  partnership,  co-operation, 
reached  even  the  lowest  labour  groups.  They 
all  bought  liberty  bonds,  or  war  stamps,  they  all 
subscribed  to  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  and  Red  Cross 
funds — almost  to  the  lowest  man.  I  heard  over 
and  again  in  these  industrial  towns  of  the  ex- 
traordinary feeling  aroused  during  the  war.  The 
echo  of  it  reached  Europe:  and  was  commented 
on  there  with  a  kind  of  envy  as  being  some- 
thing better  than  other  nations  could  achieve. 
This,  the  workmen  felt,  was  a  taste  of  true! 
Americanism. 

For  one  glorious  moment  they  were  accepted 
as  men  working  in  a  great  common  cause,  side 
by  side  with  the  employers,  all  equally  necessary. 
Hundreds  of  them,  indeed,  had  actually  gone 
into  the  army  and  fought  in  France.  Some 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  53 

had  lost  their  lives.  The  soldiers  who  returned 
to  the  mills  had  new  and  free  ideas:  in  the  first 
great  parade  of  strikers  at  Gary  some  300  of 
them  marched  in  uniform  at  the  head  of  the  line. 

A  new  era  of  democracy  and  goodwill  seemed 
dawning  in  the  world.  They  were  simple  folk: 
they  believed  it :  they  felt  it.  We  all  felt  it. 

Then  the  war  stopped  and  the  disillusion- 
ment began.  Nothing  was  really  changed :  there 
was  no  more  democracy  than  there  had  been 
before!  They  had  seen  a  vision,  dreamed  a 
dream:  they  had  awakened.  It  was  snatched 
away.  Not  only  that,  but  the  -steel  companies, 
not  needing  to  speed  up  as  much  as  during  the 
war,  began  to  discharge  many  men:  and  the 
workmen  heard  rumours  that  wages  were  soon  to 
be  reduced  so  as  to  get  the  industry  back  to 
pre-war  standards. 

I  am  trying  here  to  show  just  what  happened, 
just  what  was  the  psychology  of  these  masses  of 
men. 

Well,  they  were  back  in  the  dull  mills,  work- 
ing twelve  hours  a  day — they  had  ceased  to  be 
men,  and  were  again  mere  machines.  A  labour 
leader  quoted  me  that  bitter  cry  of  the  workers 
—which  originated  in  quite  another  industry: 

"  I  work,  work,  work  without  end, 
Why  and  for  whom  I  know  not, 
I  care  not,  I  ask  not, 
I  am  a  machine." 


54        THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

Consider,  then,  in  all  fairness,  what  happened 
next.  Some  time  before  the  war  ended  the 
American  Federation  of  Labour  had  begun  its 
campaign  to  organize  the  steel  workers.  It  went 
slowly:  it  was  uphill  busines§ — until  the  war 
ended.  And  then  many  disillusioned  workers 
seized  upon  it  as  the  one  way  of  hope.  The 
employers  had  done  nothing.  There  was  no 
way  of  getting  at  them.  One  man  at  Gary 
told  me  that  Judge  Gary  was  "  as  distant  as 
God."  Not  a  single  man  who  has  any  real 
ownership  or  any  real^ control  of  things  at  Gary 
either  lives  at  Gary  or  is  known  to  workmen  at 
Gary.  Not  one!  They  are  not  pleasant  places 
to  live  in — the  steel  towns.  Most  of  the  work- 
men I  asked  did  not  even  know  who  was  the 
"  head  man  "  of  the  Illinois  Steel  Company:  and 
Judge  Gary — of  whom  they  have  all  heard — 
is  900  miles  away  in  New  York.  To  these  men 
the  Steel  Corporation  is  a  vast,  impersonal,  in- 
human, unreachable  machine. 

So  they  listened  eagerly  to  the  labour  organ- 
izers, for  these  men  told  them  the  same  things 
they  had  heard  during  the  war:  exactly  what 
President  Wilson  had  told  them:  democracy, 
more  freedom,  more  life. 

But  the  moment  they  began  to  stir  for  them- 
selves— organize — they  at  once  found  against 
them  the  old  set  policies  of  the  Steel  Corpora- 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  55 

tion:  its  opposition  to  unionism:  its  opposition  to 
any  change  in  the  conditions  which,  since  they 
had  had  a  taste  of  freedom,  seemed  doubly  irri- 
tating. In  Pennsylvania  when  they  tried  to  hold 
meetings  they  were  suppressed  by  the  constabu- 
lary, their  organizers  were  arrested,  their  papers 
were  seized.  In  Gary,  homes  were  broken  into 
and  searched.  They  felt  the  old  hopeless  con- 
ditions closing  in  around  them. 

Some  years  ago  I  heard  deaf  and  dumb  Helen 
Keller  describe  how,  as  a  child,  she  tried  to  ex- 
press herself  and  could  not  speak,  could  not  even 
make  motions  that  6onveyed  any  idea,  could  do 
nothing  for  herself.  She  described  the  wild 
fits  of  rage  she  went  into.  She  was  suppressed, 
inhibited.  Something  of  the  same  kind  goes  on 
among  masses  of  men  who  are  not  allowed  self- 
expression.  A  certain  number  become  reck- 
less: fall  into  rages:  are  willing  to  do  anything 
to  escape. 

This  is  fertile  soil  for  wild  ideas:  for  quack 
remedies:  for  blind  revolt.  When  conservative 
labour  unionism  is  prevented,  the  T.  W.  W. 
leader  is  there  with  a  filming  doctrine  that 
promises  much  and  promises  it  quick:  there  are 
Utopian  ideas  from  Russia.  When  open  meet- 
ings and  frank  discussions  are  suppressed,  work- 
men begin  to  hold  secret  meetings,  make  ex- 
treme demands,  plot  violent  remedies.  The 


56        THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

ideas  they  hold  are  usually  of  the  vaguest  and 
crudest.  Chase  them  around  with  a  few  frank 
questions — as  I  have  done  many  times — and  you 
can  ordinarily  drive  them  into  a  corner  and 
show  them  the  want  of  logic,  or  reason,  or  even 
basis  of  fact,  to  support  their  beliefs.  But  you 
rarely  convince  them,  for  what  they  lack  in  light 
they  make  up  in  heat.  How  can  they  get  light 
if  all  association  and  discussion  is  choked  off? 
And  how  can  anything  else  be  expected  when 
these  groups  of  vigorous  but  ignorant  young 
men  are  left  crowded  together  in  miserable 
places,  worked  to  the  limit  of  endurance,  with  no 
one  paying  any  attention  to  them — body  or 
soul — so  long  as  they  come  to  work  every  day? 

Here,  then,  we  begin  to  get  at  the  bottom  fact 
about  Gary:  indeed,  about  our  entire  industrial 
life.  It  is  the  unrest,  the  unhealthy  conditions, 
that  cause  the  Bolshevism:  not  the  Bolshevism 
thnt  causes  the  unrest.  Once  the  process  starts, 
however,  as  a  disease  germ  makes  easy  work  of  a 
debilitated  human  body,  the  radical  agitation 
increases  the  trouble — accelerates  it. 

If  every  radical  alien  were  deported  from 
Gary  the  causes  of  unrest  would  still  remain. 
I  spent  most  of  the  year  of  1918  studying  similar 
conditions  in  Europe:  in  every  country  I  visited 
the  same  kind  of  unrest  prevails — and  no  one 
attributes  it  either  to  aliens  or  outside  agitators. 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  57 

One  recalls,  also,  that  exactly  the  same  com- 
plaint was  made  by  the  slave-owners  in  the 
South  before  the  Civil  War,  that  the  slaves  were 
contented,  and  that  all  the  trouble  came  from 
"  outside  agitators  "  and  "  revolutionaries  " 
John  Brown,  Garrison,  Love  joy,  Lincoln.  As 
for  the  deportation  of  agitators  and  the  sup- 
pression of  opinion,  that  policy  was  tried  out 
upon  a  grand  scale  for  many  years  by  the  old 
Russian  government:  Siberia  was  populated 
with  deported  radicals:  read  George  Kennan's 
books.  It  did  not  stop  revolution:  probably 
stimulated  its  more  violent  forms.  Look  at 
Russia  to-day. 

;<  While  we  can  deport  men  for  being  anar- 
chists," said  Senator  Kenyon  to  the  Lawyers 
Club  in  New  York,  "  we  cannot  deport  ideas." 

The  first  instinct  of  a  man  or  a  nation  with  a 
pain  is  to  treat  the  symptoms:  as  we  are  doing 
now.  Both  sides  are  trying  quack  remedies:  the 
employers  a  sure-cure  bottle  labelled,  *'  Deporta- 
tion— Suppression  " :  and  the  workers  a  bottle 
with  a  red  label:  "Bolshevism."  I  don't 
know  which  is  worse:  which  will  sooner  kill  the 
patient.  Why  not  do  what  any  sensible  man 
with  a  pain  finally  does? — learn  what  the  under- 
lying trouble  is — the  real  disease — and  try  to 
reach  and  cure  that? 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  MASSED  FORCES  BEHIND  THE  INDUSTRIAL 
CONFLICT — ORGANIZED  LABOUR 

IT   is  now  important,   if  we  are   really  to 
understand   what   is  going  on,   to   inquire 
what    are   the   massed    forces    behind    the 
present  industrial  struggle.    For  the  steel  strike, 
the  coal   strike,   big  as  they   were,   were  only 
skirmishes  in   a  far-flung  battle  line:  and  we 
cannot  understand  them   unless  we  know   the 
grand  strategy  of  the  conflict,  the  diverse  fac- 
tions within  both  camps,  and  who  the  real  com- 
manders are. 

Samuel  Gompers  is  the  type-figure  of  Ameri- 
can labour:  he  is  the  most  powerful  and  domi- 
nating leader  American  labour  has  ever  had :  but 
he  is  to-day  in  great  trouble.  In  this  respect 
Gompers  resembles  most  other  leaders  in  the 
world.  All  leaders  are  in  trouble.  Wilson  is 
in  trouble,  so  is  Lloyd-George.  And  for  a 
simple  reason:  followers  won't  follow.  Publics 
have  got  out  of  bounds:  they  won't  stay  in  old 
party  lines,  nor  yet  in  old  union  lines:  they 
challenge  authority  and  discipline.  They  gibe  at 
institutions. 

58 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  59 

Gompers  is  one  of  the  extraordinary  men  of 
America  to-day,  not  only  the  arch-type  of  a 
movement,  but  a  character,  a  personage. 

I  shall  never  forget  one  vivid  glimpse  I  had  of 
him  in  London  last  year.  He  was  going  down 
in  some  triumph  as  a  great  figure  to  visit  his 
birthplace  in  the  slums  of  the  East  End.  Here 
it  was  that  his  Dutch- Jewish  parents  had  lived: 
here  he  learned  his  trade  as  a  cigar-maker:  here 
as  a  boy  he  spoke  low  Dutch. 

I  see  him  now  striding  down  the  street,  a 
powerful  squat  figure,  followed,  a  step  behind, 
by  a  looming  bodyguard  of  labour  leaders.  He 
was  scattering  the  assembled  and  gaping  sub- 
jects of  King  George,  however  well  inured  to 
the  sight  of  potentates,  to  the  right  and  left. 
His  hat  was  set  well  back  upon  his  head,  his 
chin  was  thrust  forward,  and  he  was  throwing 
aside  humorous  remarks  to  his  followers.  So  I 
saw  him  once  again  in  Paris.  So  he  strode  full- 
fronted  throughout  Europe,  so  sure  of  himself, 
and  of  his  entire  equipment  of  ideas,  so  conscious 
of  the  immense  power  of  American  labour  be- 
hind him — that  he  scattered  to  the  right  and 
left  all  peoples  of  all  nations.  He  told  British, 
French,  and  Italian  labour  leaders,  quite  posi- 
tively, what  they  must  do  to  be  saved. 

Gompers  reminds  one  a  little  of  Clemenceau — 
a  kind  of  rougher  Clemenceau  without  the 


60        THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

French  wit  and  finish,  but  with  many  of  the 
same  qualities  of  physical  and  intellectual  force 
and  vitality.  Gompers,  too,  is  a  kind  of  tiger 
— an  old  man  long  habited  to  power,  able,  obsti- 
nate, vain,  honest — a  pattern  of  the  pugnacious 
conservative.  When  the  Chairman  of  the  Senate 
Committee  told  Gompers  that  he  could  either 
sit  or  stand  while  testifying,  he  replied: 

"  I  will  do  anything  but  lay  down." 

He  will  not  "lay  down":  nevertheless  he  is 
in  great  trouble:  and  an  account  of  what  the 
trouble  is  will  disclose  clearly  the  problems  which 
to-day  confront  American  labour. 

For  thirty-eight  years,  except  one,  Gompers 
has  been  president  of  the  American  Federation 
of  Labour.  He  helped  organize  it.  He  has 
done  more  than  any  other  man  in  shaping  the 
American  labour  movement. 

In  its  beginnings  the  Federation  represented  a 
reaction  from  the  policies  of  the  old  Knights 
of  Labour.  The  Knights  did  a  great  work  in 
their  day:  they  helped  give  labour  a  national 
vision:  but  the  organization  was  too  indiscrimi- 
nate in  its  membership,  too  centralized  in  its 
control,  too  vague  in  its  purposes:  and  it  made 
unfortunate  ventures  into  politics. 

Gompers  avoided  these  mistakes.  He  built 
firmly  upon  narrow  but  strong  craft  unionism; 
he  encouraged  democratic  control:  he  eschewed 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  61 

politics.  He  discouraged  Utopian  schemes:  he 
urged  labour  to  ask  for  specific  things  and  a 
little  at  a  time:  better  hours  and  better  wages: 
and  to  clinch  what  they  got  with  "  collective 
bargains  "  with  employers.  If  anything  was  de- 
sired from  Congress  or  legislatures,  labour  was 
to  get  it  just  as  business  men  got  it,  by  lobbying, 
or  by  pledging  candidates. 

I  speak  of  Gompers  as  doing  these  things:  he 
was,  of  course,  only  one  of  many  leaders  who 
represented  the  main  stream  of  development 
during  recent  years  of  American  labour  organi- 
zation. 

Well,  it  was  a  practical,  hard-headed  policy: 
and  it  has  had  a  great  influence  in  improving  the 
material  conditions  of  the  more  highly  skilled 
groups  of  labour.  Many  of  the  craft  unions  are 
to-day  very  powerful,  and  rich.  They  have  fine 
halls  and  office  buildings,  some  have  hospitals 
and  homes,  some  have  pension  and  benefit  funds. 
The  American  Federation  of  Labour  itself  has 
a  magnificent  home  office  of  the  sky-scraper  type 
at  Washington:  a  very  different  place  indeed 
from  the  cluttered  little  back  office  where  I  first 
called  on  Mr.  Gompers,  twenty  years  ago. 

Like  all  successful  movements,  labour  organi- 
zation in  America  has  tended  to  become  institu- 
tionalized— the  church  of  labour:  and  Gompers 
is  the  Pope  of  it. 


62        THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

The  leaders  are  of  a  very  definite  type:  practi- 
cal, efficient,  unimaginative  business  men.  A 
group  of  labour  leaders  of  successful  craft 
unions  cannot  be  distinguished  to-day  from  any 
ordinary  group  of  American  business  men. 
They  are  business  men:  and  many  employers 
have  found  them  more  than  a  match.  They  are 
traders:  they  meet  and  haggle  over  minute  de- 
tails of  agreements:  they  work  out  complicated 
contracts:  they  handle  and  invest  considerable 
sums  of  money.  The  American  labour  move- 
ment, so  far  as  it  is  typified  by  Gompers,  has 
the  reputation  of  being  the  most  conservative 
labour  body  in  the  world-— -as  it  undoubtedly  is. 
It  reached  its  very  apex  of  power  and  honour 
during  the  war.  It  came  as  strongly  to  the  sup- 
port of  the  government  as  any  Chamber  of 
Commerce  or  Board  of  Trade.  Gompers  served 
on  the  Council  of  National  Defence:  and  other 
labour  leaders  were  used  and  honoured  in  many 
ways. 

All  this  vigorous  and  successful  development, 
of  course,  has  not  been  without  strong  opposi- 
tion. At  every  Convention  of  the  American 
Federation  of  Labour  for  years  before  the 
war  Gompers  had  a  fierce  tussle  for  control  with 
the  radical  or  socialist  left-wing  of  the  movement 
—but  always  won  out.  Gornpers  has  fought 
socialism  tooth  and  nail  for  years,  with  the  result 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  63 

that  in  America  the  old  craft  union  leaders  still 
dominate  the  inurement,  while  in  England, 
socialists  are  in  control. 

The  radicals  charge  that  the  policy  of  the 
American  Federation  of  Labour  has  been  too 
narrow,  too  strictly  economic:  that  it  has  no 
social  vision:  that  it  is  essentially  aristocratic 
—that  it  has  built  up  and  protected  the  skilled 
crafts,  but  tended  to  neglect  the  great  masses  of 
unskilled,  or  foreign,  or  Negro  labour.  The  pro- 
gressives say  that  better  hours  and  more  wages 
are  not  enough,  that  these  things  will  never 
finally  content  the  spirit  of  the  worker:  that  he 
must  strive  for  what  many  of  them  call,  often 
vaguely,  "  industrial  democracy." 

All  of  these  charges  have  some  basis  in  fact. 
The  number  of  members  in  the  American  Fed- 
eration of  Labour  has  never  been  more  than 
a  very  small  percentage  of  the  total  number 
of  workers.  The  last  census  showed  over 
27,000,000  wage-earners  in  America,  including 
agricultural  labourers,  domestic  servants,  and 
other  non-industrial  groups.  But  of  this 
27,000,000  fewer  than  eight  per  cent,  were  at 
that  time  in  labour  organizations  affiliated 
with  Gompers'  Federation.  Several  of  the 
greatest  industries,  where  unskilled  or  foreign 
labour  was  largely  employed,  were  left  almost 
untouched — like  the  steel  industry,  the  textile 


64        THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

mills,  the  oil  industry  and  others.  On  the  other 
hand  the  mine-workers  with  many  unskilled  and 
foreign  labourers  are  firmly  organized  and  affili- 
ated with  the  American  Federation  of  Labour; 
so  are  the  hod-carriers :  and  in  the  last  two  years 
there  have  been  large  accessions  to  the  ranks  of 
organized  labour. 

This  situation  gave  opportunity  for  the  social- 
ists and  radical  labour  organizations  like  the 
I.  W.  W.  to  come  in.  I  was  at  the  Lawrence 
strike  in  1912.  Here  there  were  several  old, 
small,  aristocratic  craft  unions,  but  no  attention 
had  been  paid  to  the  masses  of  the  foreign 
workers  until  the  I.  W.  W.  leaders  came  in  with 
their  doctrine  that  the  interests  of  the  whole 
working-class,  foreigners  and  unskilled  as  well 
as  Americans  and  skilled,  were  identical,  that 
there  should  be  one  great  union  and  a  place  for 
every  worker  in  the  industrial  organization.  The 
idea  carried  like  wild-fire — as  it  has  in  other 
industries.  Right  or  wrong,  it  was  a  ray  of 
hope  to  thousands  of  neglected,  under-paid  and 
over-worked  human  beings. 

Another  charge  brought  by  the  progressives 
was  that  the  skilled  craft  unions,  strongly  organ- 
ized, could  make  advantageous  bargains  with 
the  equally  strong  employers'  associations  and 
mulct  the  public.  That  is,  the  union,  having  a 
monopoly  on  labour,  could  force  up  wages;  and 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  65 

the  employers,  having  a  monopoly  on  the  in- 
dustry, could  force  up  prices — and  the  public 
would  have  to  pay.  I  made  a  study  some  years 
ago  of  several  extreme  instances  of  this  sort  of 
bargaining  under  the  title  "  Capital  and  Labour 
Hunt  Together,"  and  the  practice  still  continues. 
The  public  pays  high  for  both  kinds  of  monop- 
oly. And  the  worst  feature  of  all,  in  this  sys- 
tem, as  the  great  masses  of  workers  are  now 
suddenly  discovering,  is  that  the  "  public "  is 
made  up  very  largely  of  the  immense  wage- 
earning  class  in  America  that  is  not  in  any 
union,  and  is  thus  wholly  unprotected.  In  short, 
the  masses  of  the  unskilled,  the  foreigners,  the 
Negroes,  help  pay  for  the  good  fortune,  the 
high  wages,  and  the  short  hours  of  the  highly 
skilled  organized  workers. 

This  aristocratic  unionism,  this  selfish  atten- 
tion to  their  own  interests,  this  neglect  of  the 
masses  of  labour,  furnishes  the  chief  ammuni- 
tion of  the  socialists  and  the  radicals  of  the 
I.  W.  W.  type  in  their  attacks  upon  Gompers 
and  the  American  Federation  of  Labour.  It  has 
also  given  powerful  impetus  to  those  in  the 
labour  ranks  (many  of  them  socialists)  who 
want  what  they  call  a  "  real  "  labour  movement, 
and  therefore  recommend  a  national  labour 
party  in  America.  They  say  that  the  American 
Federation  of  Labour  has  no  genuine  recon- 


66        THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

structive  program  like  the  British  labour 
movement,  and  that  it  is  controlled  by  a  kind  of 
political  machine,  headed  by  Gompers,  which  is 
impervious  to  new  ideas  or  new  methods :  that  it 
is  old,  rich,  conservative,  and  no  longer  responds 
to  the  real  aspirations  of  labour.  I  am  trying 
here  to  put  down  the  situation  just  as  it  looks 
from  all  sides.  To  be  able  to  estimate  the 
seriousness  of  the  present  unrest  we  must  know 
all  the  factors  in  it. 

Now,  several  recent  tendencies  have  served  to 
throw  more  power  into  the  hands  of  the  radicals. 
In  the  first  place  there  has  been  the  long-evident 
drift  in  American  industry  toward  the  employ- 
ment of  a  greater  proportion  of  unskilled  men. 
Employers  have  introduced  machinery  and 
divided  the  tasks  of  labour  so  that  each  work- 
man has,  so  far  as  possible,  only  one  simple 
manipulation  to  learn.  Modern  industry  has 
tended  to  steal  away  the  skill  of  the  craftsman. 
Any  foreigner,  no  matter  how  ignorant,  any 
Negro,  can  quickly  learn  to  do  much  of  the 
work  in  many  of  the  greatest  of  our  industries. 
This  tends  to  defeat  the  whole  idea  of  the  old 
unionism,  based  upon  craft  skill,  especially  as  it 
applies  to  the  great  basic  industries. 

Other  more  immediate  tendencies  have  devel- 
oped out  of  the  war.  Since  1914  all  Americans 
have  been  more  interested  than  ever  before  in 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  67 

Europe  and  in  European  movements:  and  espe- 
cially the  workers.  Among  foreigners  the  Rus- 
sian revolution  has  had  a  profound  influence: 
among  the  more  moderate  and  thoughtful 
groups,  the  program  of  the  British  Labour 
Party.  I  have  found  in  talking  with  labour  men 
of  all  kinds  recently  an  astonishing  knowledge 
of  these  foreign  movements.  Ten  years  ago, 
except  for  a  few  socialists,  American  workers 
had  little  idea  of  anything  beyond  the  horizon  of 
American  methods  and  American  ideas. 

Another  vital  influence  may  be  noted.  This  is 
the  awakening  self-consciousness  of  labour  to 
its  own  power,  dignity,  indispensability,  which 
came  with  the  war.  Labour  was  courted  as 
never  before,  taken  into  government  councils  as 
never  before,  made  to  feel  that  in  the  future  it 
would  enjoy  greater  privileges  than  ever  before. 
It  came  out  of  the  war  feeling  that  it  had  served 
well,  done  all  that  was  expected  of  it;  and  was 
now  entitled  to  the  promised  rewards. 

New  and  enthusiastic  campaigns  for  the 
organization  of  hitherto  more  or  less  untouched 
industries,  like  the  packing  houses  and  the  steel 
mills,  were  begun.  Whole  new  groups  of 
workers  began  to  come  into  the  ranks  of  organ- 
ized labour — actors,  school-teachers,  newspaper 
reporters,  architects,  nurses — and  the  wave  even 
swept  in  many  groups  of  government  or  public 


68        THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

service  employees — policemen,  postmen,  clerks 
and  the  like.  The  most  powerful  and  ably  led 
unions  in  the  country — the  Railroad  Brother- 
hoods— came  forward  with  an  ambitious  plan, 
the  Plumb  plan,  for  the  future  control  of  the 
railroads.  A  strong  movement  was  launched 
for  the  organization  of  a  new  Labour  Party,  to 
carry  the  whole  struggle  into  the  political  field 
— which  I  shall  consider  in  another  chapter — 
and  finally  a  sudden,  but  enthusiastic,  interest 
sprung  up  in  developing  wholesale  and  retail 
co-operative  stores,  on  the  English  system,  in 
order  to  meet  some  of  the  problems  of  the  high 
cost  of  living. 

This  sudden  burst  of  new  self -consciousness  on 
the  part  of  labour,  new  enthusiasm,  new  organi- 
zation, has  been  met  by  a  cold  douche  both  from 
employers  and  from  the  government.  "  They 
taught  us  to  be  lions'  whelps  during  the  war," 
as  one  leader  said,  "  and  now  they  want  us  to 
subside  quietly  into  beasts  of  burden.  We  shall 
never  do  it." 

Now,  the  progressive  and  radical  groups  in 
the  labour  movement  assert  that  Gompers  and 
the  American  Federation  of  Labour  are  un- 
sympathetic toward  most  of  the  new  move- 
ments: that  all  vital  thinking  and  new  leader- 
ship is  frowned  on  by  Gompers.  They  say 
that  he  does  not  believe  in  a  Labour  Party, 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  69 

nor  in  the  Plumb  plan,  nor  in  the  more 
or  less  vague  but  powerful  demands  for  more 
"  socialization  "  in  industry.  He  sees  the  new 
unrest,  but  he  knows  only  the  rules  of  the  old 
game  as  he  has  played  it  for  fifty  years.  He  has 
indeed  tried  to  adapt  himself  to  the  new  condi- 
tions— for  example,  in  supporting  a  movement, 
which  he  could  not  have  prevented,  on  the  part 
of  progressives  like  Fitzpatrick  and  Foster,  to 
organize  the  meat-packing  industry  at  Chicago, 
and  later  the  steel  industry,  on  a  new  plan,  bor- 
rowed, in  part,  from  the  I.  W.  W.  And  he  has 
welcomed  into  the  Federation  some  of  the  abler 
young  radicals  like  Foster,  who  are  now  "  bor- 
ing from  within  " — using  the  machinery  of  the 
Federation  for  pressing  agitation  and  organiza- 
tion along  the  new  lines. 

Thus  Gompers,  with  the  wonderful  machine 
he  has  built  up,  finds  himself  attacked  upon  all 
sides.  A  labour  party  movement,  began  scarcely 
a  year  ago,  and  led  by  men  in  his  own  camp,  is 
spreading  rapidly.  There  were  never  so  many 
unauthorized  and  uncontrollable  strikes  as  there 
have  been  recently.  Gompers  advised  the  steel 
workers  to  delay  their  strike,  as  the  President 
requested:  but  they  paid  no  attention  to  him. 
There  have  been  powerful  and  successful  in- 
surgent unions — like  the  Amalgamated  Clothing 
Workers — growing  up  outside  of  the  Federa- 


70        THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

tion.  He  excommunicates  them,  but  it  does  no 
good.  And  finally,  to  cap  the  climax,  the  asso- 
ciation with  government  agencies  formed  during 
the  war,  which  Gompers  and  the  American 
Federation  of  Labour  felt  to  be  such  a  bulwark 
of  strength,  has  suddenly  crumbled  away.  He 
is  no  longer  looked  to  and  courted  as  the  su- 
preme arbiter  and  spokesman  of  labour.  He 
could  not  even  prevent  the  government  from 
enjoining  the  coal  miners! 

Thus  the  whole  great  world  of  labour  in 
America  is  in  a  new  ferment — stirred  to  its 
depth  as  it  never  was  before. 

As  regards  the  tendencies  now  apparent  it 
may  be  divided  into  three  great  groups: 

1.  The  o]r)  pon?Tr,i*n'r>  unionists  of  the 
American  Federation  of  Labour  led  by 
Gompers.  While  this  group  is  wholly  non- 
revolutionary,  it  is  still  very  powerful: 
and  if  aroused,  if  it  sees  any  of  its  liberties 
slipping  away,  it  will  prove  a  tough  fighter. 
This  is  equally  true  of  the  great  railroad 
brotherhoods.  The  present  policy  on  the  part 
of  many  employers  and  politicians  toward  in- 
discriminate attacks  on  all  organized  labour 
tends  to  drive  these  conservatives  into  a  more 
radical  position.  Gompers,  for  example,  finds 
himself  now  attacked  by  an  employer,  Gary, 
and  a  politician,  Pomerene,  for  just  the 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  71 

kind  of  radicalism  he  has  been  fighting  all  his 
life! 

2.  The   new    progressive   group.      This    is 
mostly  made  up  of  the  left  wing  within  the 
American  Federation  of  Labour  which  has  been 
fighting  Gompers  for  years  and  has  now  formed 
a    National    Labour    Party,    with    a    program 
much  more  radical,  more  socialistic,  than  that 
of  the  American  Federation  of  Labour.     No 
one    knows    yet    how    strong    the    sentiment 
behind    the    movement   is,   but   from   what   I 
saw   at    the   convention   in    Chicago   I    should 
judge  that  it  would  take  very  little  to  precipitate 
a  considerable  number  of  the  workers  of  America 
into  radical  political  action. 

3.  The  revolutionary  groups.     The  chief  of 
these  is  the  I.  W.  W.  but  there  are,  or  have 
been,    many    smaller    bodies    of    communists, 
anarchists  and  syndicalists,  especially  among  the 
foreign  elements.    In  total  numbers  this  element 
is  very  small,  and  divided  up  into  many  and 
warring  factions. 

Labour  unrest  exists:  profound  changes  in 
alignments  and  leadership  is  going  on.  New 
and  more  radical  men  are  coming  to  the  front. 
Much  will  depend  upon  how  this  movement  is 
treated  by  employers  and  political  leaders.  If 
it  is  indiscriminately  attacked,  if  every  leader 
who  proposes  a  plan,  or  advances  an  idea  not 


72        THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

approved  from  above,  is  called  a  "  Bolshevik," 
or  arrested  and  clapped  into  jail,  or  deported, 
the  result  will  be  to  drive  the  whole  movement 
toward  a  more  radical  position,  and  more  revo- 
lutionary methods.  Here  is  a  great  awakening 
of  life:  new  ideas  and  new  enthusiasm:  if  it  is 
met  with  understanding,  if  there  is  evidence  of  a 
desire  for  co-operation,  there  are  possibilities  of 
a  new  constructive  epoch  in  American  industry. 
Many  such  patient  attempts  at  better  under- 
standing and  co-operation  are  now  being  made 
by  both  managers  and  men — I  shall  later  tell 
of  some  of  them — but  there  are  also  abroad 
wild  councils  of  force  which  do  not  even  try 
to  understand  what  is  happening  and  which  tend 
to  break  down  all  the  agencies  of  reasonableness 
and  conciliation,  and  make  for  the  very  revolu- 
tion which  they  think  they  are  preventing. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  MASSED  FORCES  BEHIXD  THE  INDUSTRIAL 
CONFLICT — ORGANIZED  CAPITAL 

EBOUR,  as  I  have  tried  to  show  in  my 
last  chapter,  presents  no  unbroken  front. 
It  is  torn  by  factions,  has  no  one  pro- 
gram, nor  any  undisputed  leadership.  It  has 
no  unity. 

But  neither  does  the  employers'  side  pre- 
sent an  unbroken  front.  Here  also  there 
exist  wide  differences  of  policy  and  program: 
an  outline  of  which  will  lead  to  a  clearer 
understanding  of  the  present  industrial  con- 
troversies. 

Probably  Judge  Gary  is  to-day  the  out- 
standing representative  of  the  more  conserva- 
tive group  of  employers — the  right  wing.  He, 
too,  like  Gompers,  who  typifies  the  more  con- 
servative group  of  organized  labour,  finds  him- 
self under  attack. 

Judge  Gary  does  not  quite  belong  to  the 
great  group  of  industrial  pioneers:  Carnegie, 
Rockefeller,  Frick:  but  he  represents  in  general 
their  attitude  toward  labour — the  old  tradition. 
He  came  a  little  later.  He  was  not  a  steel- 

78 


74        THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

master;  he  was  the  man  of  finance  whose  pur- 
pose it  was  to  develop  and  conserve. 

There  was  something  magnificent  about  these 
pioneers:  they  were  big,  free  men.  They  had 
imagination.  In  a  new  America,  they  had  an 
unsullied  canvas  and  they  painted  with  a  comet's 
tail.  One  who  visits  the  city  of  Gary  gets  a 
vivid  impression  of  the  grand  scale  upon  which 
they  worked.  Thirteen  years  ago,  there  was 
nothing  here  but  a  wilderness  of  sand-dunes; 
and  to-day  a  city  of  80,000  people.  I  don't 
know  whether  it  was  Judge  Gary  or  some  other, 
but  consider  going  there  thirteen  years  ago,  and 
standing,  let  us  say,  upon  one  of  the  low  hills 
overlooking  the  wide  grey  lake  and  saying: 

"  Over  there  I  will  build  my  mills :  there  shall 
run  the  main  street  of  my  city:  there  I  shall 
encourage  churches  and  schools.  This  spot  of 
infertile  sand  I  will  cover  with  soil:  I  will  water 
it:  I  will  plant  trees.  This  shall  be  my  park 
where  all  the  people  may  enjoy  themselves." 

Think,  moreover,  of  having  both  the  power 
and  the  money — unlimited  millions — to  create 
the  city  and  the  mills  there  planned,  and  to  see 
that  creation  succeed! 

Well,  these  were  genuinely  big  men  and  they 
did  a  great  work.  There  was  something  cosmic 
about  the  way  they  dreamed,  the  way  they  built, 
the  way  they  accumulated  money:  and  the  way 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  75 

they  have  given  it  away.  Frick,  dying  the  other 
day,  left  $117,000,000  to  the  American  people. 
The  very  boldness  and  success  with  which  they 
created  and  built  gave  all  the  men  of  that  gener- 
ation an  extraordinary  sense  of  authority  and 
self-confidence.  In  visiting  many  of  the  offices 
of  the  Steel  Corporation,  I  found  one  motto, 
printed  upon  card-board,  upon  the  wall.  It 
somehow  expressed  the  spirit  of  the  place,  in- 
deed, the  very  spirit  of  American  industry  and 
these  were  the  confident  words: 


It  Can  $£e  Bone 


Like  so  many  of  these  early  men,  Judge  Gary 
came  up  from  the  bottom.  He  was  born  on  a 
farm  in  Illinois  where  as  a  boy  he  worked  twelve 
hours  a  day^-as  he  relates  when  the  twelve-hour 
day  in  the  steel  mills  is  discussed;  he  was  a 
lawyer,  a  judge,  and  finally  a  great  financial  and 
industrial  organizer — the  head  to-day  of  the 
greatest  corporation  in  the  world,  with  more 
power  over  the  lives  of  human  beings  than 
many  a  king.  A  magic  career! 

Thcsf  earlier  men  all  dealt  boldly  not  only 
with  material  but  with  men.  They  were  strong 
individualists.  They  did  not  confer,  or  co- 


76        THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

operate,  or  teach :  they  dictated.  It  was  the  way 
of  the  times.  They  fought  union  labour  when 
they  could,  dealt  with  it  when  they  must,  and 
finally  crushed  it.  But  in  those  days  if  a  work- 
man did  not  like  the  management,  or  the  man- 
agement like  him,  he  could  and  did  get  out.  But 
then  there  was  always  a  place  for  him  to  go: 
there  was  always  the  West;  and  more  or  less 
free  land  and  free  opportunity.  The  restless, 
agitating,  organizing  spirits  thus  left  the  ranks 
of  the  workers:  whereas  in  Europe,  there  being 
no  easy  way  to  escape,  they  remained  in  the 
workers'  ranks  and  agitated  and  organized. 

But  a  change  in  this  respect  has  come  swiftly 
in  America:  there  is  no  longer  a  free  escape: 
no  open  and  easy  West.  So  the  restless  spirits, 
more  and  more,  have  to  remain  where  they  are 
and  take  out  their  restlessness  in  social  organiza- 
tion. This  is  only  one  of  many  profound 
changes  that  have  been  going  on  in  America 
since  Judge  Gary  was  young:  since  the  great 
days  of  the  creators  and  developers  of  industry. 
I  wonder  sometimes  if  he  fully  visualizes  these 
changes ! 

Judge  Gary  is  an  old  man:  he  is  74  (Gompers 
is  70) — a  strong  man  with  strong  ideas,  very 
sure  of  himself.  No  one  who  talks  with  him — 
as  I  did — can  doubt  his  sincerity.  He  wants 
to  do  right,  he  believes  he  is  doing  right.  He 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  7T 

is  quiet-voiced  and  tranquil  and  deliberate. 
\Vhen  he  talks  he  asserts  very  little,  but  seems 
curiously  to  comment,  to  suggest,  to  question. 
He  is  frank:  and  he  has  the  courage  of  his 
convictions. 

I  tried  in  a  former  chapter  to  show,  in  his 
own  words,  just  how  he  looks  at  the  present 
industrial  ferment.  He  stands,  so  far  as  labour 
is  concerned,  just  about  where  Carnegie  and 
Frick  stood  in  1892.  He  judges  the  twelve-hour 
day  in  his  mills  by  his  own  twelve-hour  day 
sixty  years  ago  on  the  farm.  He  has  indeed  seen 
the  approaching  unrest  and  has  tried  to  meet 
it  with  a  really  wonderful  development  of  wel- 
fare work:  safety  devices,  housing,  hospitals, 
pensions,  play-grounds  and  the  like.  His  cor- 
poration spent  $17,000,000  in  1918  in  these 
various  activities  which  I  hope  to  describe  more 
fully  later,  for  they  are  as  fine  an  experiment  as 
has  anywhere  been  made  of  welfare  work  as  a 
means  for  meeting  industrial  unrest,  and  exhibit 
both  the  strength  and  the  weakness  of  that 
method. 

Judge  Gary's  autocracy  has  been  benevolent: 
but  it  has  been  an  utter  autocracy.  As  to  the 
new  spirit  stirring  among  the  workers,  especially 
during  and  since  the  war,  I  think  it  fair  to  say — 
judging  by  his  own  speeches  and  testimony — 
that  he  has  never  sensed  it  at  all.  He  has  done 


78        THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

much  for  the  bodily  comfort  of  his  men:  of  the 
soul  of  the  modern  worker  he  seems  never  to 
have  haH  a  gVrrpse. 

I  said  that  Gompers  and  the  American 
Federation  of  Labour  represented  the  most 
conservative  labour  body  in  the  world.  Judge 
Gary  represents  the  most  conservative  group 
of  employers.  It  is  only  in  the  United  States 
Steel  Corporation  and  in  certain  independ- 
ent steel  companies  that  the  twelve-hour  work- 
day and  the  seven-day  week  remain  entrenched. 
There  is  no  metallurgical  necessity  for  the  long 
day:  the  eight-hour  day  has  been  introduced  in 
England  and  in  Germany:  and  in  other  indus- 
tries having  continuous  operation,  like  the  paper- 
pulp  industry,  the  three-shift  system  is  the  rule. 
Judge  Gary  is  also  the  last  great  bulwark 
against  labour  unionism  and  collective  bargain- 
ing. Even  in  the  steel  industry,  some  of  the 
principal  employers  have  clearly  recognized  that 
new  human  devices  must  be  created  to  meet 
new  human  needs.  John  D.  Rockefeller,  Jr., 
has  introduced  company  unions  and  shop  com- 
mittees in  his  Colorado  steel  plants:  and  he  has 
the  eight-hour  day.  The  Midvale  Steel  Com- 
pany, one  of  the  great  independents,  also  has  a 
shop-committee  system — of  which  I  shall  speak 
later. 

Of  course,  one  great  source  of  Judge  Gary's 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  79 

strength  in  his  position  as  a  leader  is  that  he 
has  made  his  policy  pay — and  pay  big.  And 
this  is  a  tremendous  argument  anywhere  in  the 
world.  Here  are  the  profits  of  the  corporation 
since  1914 — after  deducting  federal  income 
taxes : 

1914  $  58,267,925 

1915  107,832,016 

1916  303,449,4-76 

1917  253,608,200 

1918  167,562,280 

There  have  been  dividends  and  extra  dividends 
—amounting,  on  common  stock  in  1917  to  five 
per  cent,  regular  and  thirteen  per  cent,  extra 
and  in  1918  to  fourteen  per  cent.  Large  sums 
of  money  have  also  gone  into  improvements  of 
the  property  and  into  surplus. 

Do  not  think  that  these  profits  escape  the 
eyes  of  the  workers.  They  are  published  in  all 
the  labour  papers:  and  when  the  argument  that 
the  cost  of  introducing  an  eight-hour  day  makes 
it  prohibitive  these  figures  are  produced.  One 
of  the  labour  papers  has  a  heading  called  "  Hid- 
den News " ;  and  into  that  column  goes  the 
profit  records  of  great  employing  corporations 
of  all  sorts.  Here  is  an  item  recently  pub- 
lished : 

'  The  Western  Sugar  Company  yesterday 
declared  an  extra  dividend  of  ten  per  cent,  in 


80        THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

addition  to  the  regular  quarterly  dividend  of 
one  and  three-fourths  per  cent,  on  the  common 
and  preferred  stocks." 

It  is  necessary  in  trying  to  understand  this 
problem  of  industrial  unrest  to  see  how  these 
things  really  look  from  below  to  the  workers. 
We  must  ask  what  the  reaction  is  upon  tens  of 
thousands  of  striking  steel  workers,  for  example, 
who  are  asking  for  better  conditions  when  they 
read  these  reports  of  the  profits  of  the  steel 
trust:  or  upon  the  same  men,  struggling  with 
the  high  cost  of  living  and  the  shortage  of  sugar, 
when  they  see  the  large  profits  of  companies 
dealing  in  food.  Get  their  point  of  view  for  a 
moment!  They  feel  powerful  resentment:  they 
act  upon  the  information  they  have :  no  one  tries 
to  explain  except  the  radical  orators.  Suppose 
we  cut  off  the  radical  orators,  suppose  we 
destroy  the  radical  literature  which  assumes  to 
interpret  these  facts:  does  that  change  the  facts 
or  remove  the  causes  of  resentment?  If  these 
profits  and  conditions  are  necessary  or  reason- 
able in  industry,  is  there  not  some  way  to  ex- 
plain them  so  that  the  workers  can  understand? 

I  talked  recently  with  a  number  of  employers : 
one  of  whom  had  a  strike  in  his  plant  lasting  for 
three  months.  It  had  nearly  ruined  him  and 
his  business:  the  overhead  charges  were  eating 
him  up.  He  told  me  eloquently  of  the  difficulties 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  81 

he  had  to  meet,  the  complexities  and  hazards  of 
his  business,  the  competitive  nature  of  his  field 
of  operations :  and  of  the  utter  unreasonableness, 
as  he  saw  it,  of  his  striking  workers.  I  was  so 
much  impressed  with  what  he  said  that  I  asked: 

"  Isn't  there  some  way  that  you  could  explain 
your  position  to  your  workers,  or  their  leaders, 
as  you  have  to  me? " 

He  scouted  the  idea. 

"  Have  you  tried?  " 

"  No — what's  the  use?  They  don't  want  to 
understand:  they  can't  understand." 

"  But,"  I  said,  "  they  understand  enough  to 
tie  you  up  and  ruin  you — and  ruin  themselves  at 
the  same  time,  for  that  matter.  Isn't  it  worth 
trying? " 

Judge  Gary  thus  represents  the  most  con- 
servative American  attitude  toward  labour:  but 
other  groups  and  other  ideas  are  everywhere 
springing  up.  Let  me  tell  a  little  experience 
I  had  not  long  ago,  for  it  throws  a  vivid  light 
on  the  whole  problem  of  the  employers'  attitude 
toward  labour.  I  was  waiting  for  a  short  time 
in  the  reception  room  of  one  of  the  steel  plants 
at  Gary.  There  happened  to  be  four  technical 
publications  on  the  table  for  waiting  visitors  to 
look  over.  So  I  looked  them  over.  One  of  them 
was  a  copy  of  "  System,"  another  a  copy  of 
"  Industrial  Management."  And  as  I  read,  my 


82        THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

wonder  grew.  Right  here  in  one  of  Judge 
Gary's  offices  was  enough  of  the  dynamite  of 
new  ideas  to  blow  up  his  system! 

Here  I  read  of  shop  committees,  co-operation 
with  workers,  the  need  of  new  kinds  of  manage- 
ment based  upon  mutual  understanding  between 
employers  and  employees.  Let  me  quote  one 
paragraph — I'd  like  to  quote  many  more: 

"  Industry  to-day  is  drudgery  for  the  average 
worker — perhaps  the  great  impulse  toward  in- 
dustrial democracy  is  the  desire  to  break  the 
bonds  of  irksome  work  and  restore  a  condition 
where  labour  will  be  a  pleasure  and  not  toil.  In 
the  face  of  this  aspiration,  which  has  been  work- 
ing in  industry  for  a  century  and  has  cut  the 
average  working  hours  in  two,  what  reason  can 
support  the  demand  that  we  must  work  longer 
hours?  The  unanswerable  argument  is  '  it  can't 
be  done.'  We  cannot  run  counter  to  the  great 
forces  operating  in  industry." 

When  I  read  this,  and  some  other  things  in 
these  books,  I  looked  again  to  see  if  they  were 
not  labour  journals:  and  then  I  thought  of 
running  out  and  calling  in  the  secret  service 
officers  who  were  then  engaged  in  raiding  homes 
in  Gary  and  capturing  revolutionary  literature. 
I  thought  Judge  Gary  at  least  ought  to  know 
what  was  going  on  inside  his  offices! 

The  publications  I  saw  thus  at  random  were 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  83 

expressions  of  a  great  movement  within  industry 
itself  to  improve  human  relationships.  Quietly, 
but  strongly,  in  the  last  dozen  years  has  grown 
up  a  new  interest  in  management:  schools  of 
management;  a  science  of  management  and  a 
new  profession,  the  specialist  in  industrial  rela- 
tionships, have  come  into  existence.  These  men 
are  close  to  the  problem  itself  and  really  know 
the  situation.  Financial  and  business  heads  of 
great  corporations  have  often  got  very  far  away 
from  the  human  problems  of  the  mills :  but  these 
men  are  trying  to  get  back  again.  They  are  the 
men  most  responsible  for  production  and  for 
the  smooth  running  of  the  shops.  Yet  they  are 
relatively  low-paid  men,  especially  in  the  great 
corporations.  Their  true  interests  are  often 
quite  different  from  those  of  the  bankers  and 
capitalists  who  control  the  industry.  One  some- 
times hears  urged  the  necessity,  if  we  desire 
greater  activity  and  enterprise  in  industry,  that 
capital  be  better  rewarded.  There  are  a  number 
of  old  ladies  in  a  town  I  know  who  hold  stock  in 
the  United  States  Steel  Corporation.  If  you 
rewarded  them  with  five  times  the  dividends  they 
now  receive  I  suppose  production  of  steel  at 
Pittsburgh  would  not  be  greatly  increased.  But 
if  you  were  to  reward  the  managers  and  the 
men  who  are  on  the  job,  no  doubt  there  would 
be  an  increase  in  production. 


84        THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

Here,  in  short,  is  a  great  new  field,  full  of 
life  and  suggestiveness,  which  I  hope  to  develop 
more  completely  in  other  chapters.  There  are 
at  present  in  both  large  and  small  industries — 
but  mostly  in  small  industries — a  great  number 
of  hopeful  experiments  in  human  relationships 
between  owners,  managers  and  men:  not  only 
the  familiar  collective  bargaining  between  unions 
and  employers,  but  many  other  arrangements, 
including  the  shop -committee  system,  profit- 
sharing,  arbitration  boards  and  so  on.  No  one 
of  them  is  a  "  solution  " — all  of  them  are  hope- 
ful experiments. 

I  divided  the  labour  movement  in  America 
into  three  great  groups:  the  employers  fall  also 
into  three  groups. 

1.  The  conservative  capitalists  of  the  Gary 
type  in  whom  the  old  individualistic  impulse  is 
still  very   strong.     They   are   often  men  who 
represent,  as  Gary  does,  the  financial  side  of 
the    industry    rather   than   the    technical    side. 
They  do  not  come  closely  into  contact  with  the 
human  side  of  the  labour  problem. 

2.  The  great  mass  of  employers,  like  those  in 
the  building  trades,  the  railroads,  and  in  many 
industries,  who  accept  the  principle  of  labour 
organization  and  bargain  collectively,  not  be- 
cause they  like  to — though  many  now  think  it 
the  best  and  easiest  way  out — but  because  they 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  85 

must.  Labour  demands  it  and  is  strong  enough 
to  enforce  its  demand.  Some  of  the  great  inde- 
pendent steel  masters  like  John  D.  Rockefeller, 
Jr.,  have  come  a  long  way  into  the  camp  of  the 
progressives. 

3.  A  group  I  should  call  the  radicals  if  there 
were  not  such  a  curse  upon  the  name.  These 
are  men  of  the  new  management-engineering 
type  who  try  to  look  at  industry  from  a  scien- 
tific point  of  view,  who  want  to  know  the  facts, 
and  are  as  much  interested  in  the  human  machine 
as  in  the  power-plant  or  the  dynamos.  They  see 
in  some  kind  of  understanding  and  co-operation 
between  management  and  men  the  only  solution 
of  industrial  problems.  They  do  not  deal  with 
the  men  because  they  are  forced  to,  but  because 
they  want  to.  They  think  harmonious  relation- 
ships in  a  factory  will  produce  smore  steel,  shoes, 
sugar,  than  continual  strife  and  suspicion.  And 
a  surprising  number  of  these  men  are  trying  to 
practise  what  they  believe — and  some  of  their 
results  are  most  interesting. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

AWAKENING  OF  THE  PUBLIC  TO  THE  INDUSTRIAL 

CRISIS 

WHEN  I  was  in  Chicago  a  man  with 
whom  I  was  discussing  the  indus- 
trial problem  suddenly  asked: 

'  What  are  you  going  to  do  about  me? " 

"  What  do  you  mean?  " 

:<  Well,  I'm  the  Innocent  Bystander.  I'm  the 
man  who  gets  the  brick-bat  intended  for  one  of 
the  belligerents.  I'm  the  Public.  Whatever 
happens  I  get  hurt." 

I  have  dealt  in  former  chapters  with  the  atti- 
tude of  various  groups  of  employers  and  em- 
ployees toward  the  present  industrial  unrest. 
It  is  now  important  to  consider  the  point  of 
view  of  the  "  great  third  party."  The  awaken- 
ing of  the  public  to  the  seriousness  of  the  present 
unrest,  its  threat  to  American  institutions,  is,  in 
some  ways,  the  greatest  news  in  the  whole  situa- 
tion. 

We  are  in  the  midst  of  a  sudden,  powerful, 
and,  at  present,  crude  reassertion  of  public 
rights.  It  is  as  though  the  American  giant  had 
suddenly  awakened — or  just  returned  from  war 

86 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  87 

overseas! — and  finding  disorder  all  about,  had 
acted  with  terrific  force  and  directness.  It  is 
the  American  way — we  may  not  at  all  approve 
it,  but  there  it  is! — to  act  first  and  inquire  about 
it  afterwoTH.  I  recall  a  saying  of  the  early 
days  in  the  north  woods,  when  the  lumbermen 
first  wertt  in:  "  Cut  the  trees,  ask  about  the  lines 
afterward."  There  is  much  of  this  spirit  still 
left  in  America. 

So  we  have  pounced  right  and  left  upon  dis- 
turbers— with  little  inquiry  and  less  und^Stsnd- 
ing — tossed  one  handful  of  them  back  to  Russia 
and  evidently  propose  to  toss  still  others.  i\'o 
one  knows  the  number  of  thousands — or  the  fleet 
of  ships  required  to  take  them!  A  stupendous 
business!  We  have  raided  the  offices  and  homes 
of  both  wild  and  tame  radicals,  sometimes  with 
legal  authority  and  sometimes  without;  we  have 
choked  off  radical  orators;  turned  out  radical 
members  of  the  legislature  and  now  propose  the 
most  sweeping  and  drastic  legislation  in  the 
world  for  dealing  with  disturbers.  One  bold 
stroke  at  what  seemed  a  threat  to  public  rights 
and  public  order — the  police  strike  at  Boston- 
has  made  a  presidential  candidate! 

It  is  not  the  way  they  do  it  in  England:  nor 
yet  in  France:  it  is  our  way:  and  must  be  so 
accepted  and  dealt  with. 

It  is  our  way:  and  behind  it,  ruthless  as  it  is, 


88        THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

and  little  as  many  of  us  can  approve  the  methods 
employed,  there  is  a  deep  instinct  that  the  self- 
ish forces  of  cliques,  groups,  interests,  in  Ameri- 
can life  have  grown  too  strong:  and  that  "  there 
must,"  as  one  leader  expressed  it,  "  be  some  kind 
of  a  new  deal.'* 

The  causes  of  the  present  disorder  and  unrest 
reach  far  back  and  deep  down:  the  war  merely 
accelerated  developments  already  under  way. 
At  the  bottom  lies  the  popular  discontent,  which 
has  been  growing  for  years,  with  the  economic 
arrangements  of  society:  a  feeling  that  they  are 
unjust  and  undemocratic:  a  feeling  that  while 
there  have  been  enormous  developments  in  ma- 
chinery and  business  organization,  the  social  and 
political  structure  has  not  kept  pace  with  them. 
This  feeling  is  not  peculiar  to  America:  it  is 
worldwide. 

Some  one  has  said  that  the  greatest  invention 
of  the  "  Wonderful  Century  "  was  not  the  steam 
engine,  or  the  dynamo,  or  wireless  telegraphy, 
but  that  extraordinary  and  potent  device,  un- 
restricted social  organization. 

Groups  everywhere  that  felt  oppressed,  or 
wanted  protection  or  privilege,  organized  to  get 
it.  Capitalists  organized,  combined,  trustified 
—and  succeeded  beyond  the  dreams  of  avarice. 
Labour  organized  and  became  powerful.  Pro- 
hibitionists organized  and  dried  up  the  country. 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  89 

Women  organized  and  got  the  vote.  Voluntary 
social  organization  has  for  the  last  twenty-five 
years  been  humanity's  magic  wand.  It  would 
do  anything!  It  has  built  up  a  wonderful  tech- 
nique of  its  own:  it  knows  how  to  get  money, 
use  propaganda,  influence  elections,  force  legis- 
lators. It  is  a  wonderful  tool — used  sometimes 
for  good  purposes:  sometimes  for  wholly  selfish 
purposes. 

Consider  more  specifically  labour  organiza- 
tion. I  remember  well  the  little,  dismal,  smoky 
rooms  over  saloons  that  used  to  represent  the 
typical  labour  union  headquarters  of  twenty-five 
years  ago:  I  thought  of  the  contrast  the  other 
day  when  I  visited  the  fine  hall — it  cost  several 
hundred  thousand  dollars — built  by  the  Street 
Car  Men's  Union  of  Chicago. 

Once  the  movement  demonstrated  its  success 
in  improving  the  conditions  of  life  for  working- 
men — and  it  was  the  only  way  they  had — it 
spread  like  wildfire.  I  was  amazed  the  other  day 
to  look  at  the  list  of  unions  affiliated  with  one  of 
the  principal  city  central  bodies :  school-teachers, 
actors,  newspaper  writers,  architects,  nurses. 
They  are  all  coming  in.  Public  employees  are 
coming  in:  policemen,  postmen.  The  movement 
is  even  penetrating  the  rarified  atmosphere  where 
authors  and  college  professors  are  supposed  to 
dwell.  I  received  a  communication  the  other  day 


90        THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

from  the  Authors'  League,  of  which  I  am  a 
member,  that  read  strangely  like  many  a  trade- 
union  document — only  the  Pants  Makers  and 
Hod  Carriers  have  had  longer  experience  and 
know  better  how  to  do  it.  We  authors  have 
gone  at  the  business  in  our  "  labour  union  "  of 
standardizing  contracts,  making  better  terms 
with  our  employers- — the  predatory  and  shame-/ 
fully  plutocratic  publishers! — and  working  for 
more  pay  and  better  living  conditions. 

"  As  a  result  of  six  years  of  unremitting  ef- 
fort," remarks  this  document,  "  the  author  en- 
joys a  new  standing  and  a  greater  security  than 
at  any  other  time  in  the  history  of  the  profes- 
sion." 

You  see  what  our  union  does!  We're  better 
off  than  ever  Shakespeare  was:  or  Dickens  or 
Thackeray,  or  Cervantes,  or  Goethe.  We're 
securer:  we  have  a  new  standing:  and  organiza- 
tion did  it! 

As  I  say,  this  tendency  toward  group  organi- 
zation b^s  gone  to  preat  lengths  in  our  society. 
It  has  been  a  powerful  centrifugal  influence,  dis- 
integrating our  life  into  thousands  of  small, 
warring  groups,  societies,  factions — each  seeking 
its  own  advancement,  its  own  security,  regardless 
of  anything  else.  This  has  applied  to  both  em- 
ployers and  employees. 

One  reason  why  political  life  has  reached  such 


91 

a  low  ebb  in  America — why  politics  attracts  so 
poor  a  quality  of  leadership — is  because  vital 
men  who  really  want  something  done  feel  surer 
of  getting  it  through  outside  organizations,  than 
through  the  indirect  and  cumbrous  machinery  of 
politics. 

In  its  essence  this  strong,  crude  impulse 
toward  a  new  public  order  represents  a  power- 
ful reaction  from  these  disintegrating  tendencies. 

For  years  we  were  hammering  selfish  capital- 
istic organizations — we  are  still  at  it — and  now 
we  are  hammering  labour  organizations.  We 
don't  want  either  Gary  or  Gompers  to  boss  us: 
to  control  our  lives,  or  force  their  will  upon  us. 

We  have  had  one  or  two  recent  object  lessons 
of  stunning  force.  The  entire  110,000,000  of  us 
have  seen  our  business  paralysed,  our  production 
cut  off  in  the  steel  industry  because  Gary  and 
Gompers  could  not  agree.  The  110,000,000  of 
us  have  suffered  still  more  acutely  because  400,- 
000  of  us  who  are  coal  miners  stopped  producing 
a  basic  necessity  of  life.  There  was  never  before 
in  America  such  an  acute  Hemonstratiorc  of 
group  interest  against  public  interest.  No  won- 
der the  American  giant  is  angry — blindly  angry 
—and  beats  about  in  a  kind  of  berserkian  rage 
—not  at  all  particular  as  to  what  heads  he  hits, 
or  how. 

If  this  rage,  however,  were  the  only  expression 


92        THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

of  the  public  interest  the  outlook  would  be  dark 
indeed.  But  it  is  not.  While  there  are  power- 
ful forces  using  the  fine  burst  of  passion  for 
a  "  new  deal,"  for  "  public  rights,"  for  "  law  and 
order "  in  America  to  serve  their  own  selfish 
interests:  using  it  as  a  smoke-screen  to  conceal 
their  own  purposes:  there  is,  it  seems  to  me,  a 
new  sense  abroad  that  law  and  order  must  be 
based  upon  a  real  understanding  of  the  new 
:onditions  and  upon  a  solid  foundation  of  jus- 
tice. 

Never  before  has  there  been  such  a  number  of 
inquiries  from  all  sides  and  by  all  kinds  of 
organizations:  or  such  a  desire  to  get  at  the 
truth.  We  have  had  government  inquiries — 
one  of  them  the  President's  Commission — which 
have  aroused  unusual  public  interest.  It  is 
nothing  that  the  President's  first  commission 
failed:  at  least  it  failed  dramatically,  with  the 
protagonists  of  the  opposing  issues  clearly  re- 
vealed. 

On  what  may  be  called  the  side  of  the  capital- 
ists the  awakening  is  marked.  The  other  day,  in 
the  office  of  one  of  the  notable  figures  of  Wall 
Street — where  one  would  least  expect  to  find 
such  a  sentiment — I  saw  framed  and  hanging 
on  the  wall  this  quotation  from  a  speech  by  Mr. 
Asquith,  delivered  in  January  of  last  year 
(1919) : 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  93 

The  old  system  has  broken  down.  War  was  its  final 
declaration  of  insolvency.  New  factors  are  at  work. 
Science  not  only  has  not  said  her  last  words  but  is  fairly 
to  be  described  as  still  only  lisping  the  alphabet  of  annihi- 
lation. 

Organizations  such  as  Chambers  of  Commerce 
and  Merchants'  Associations  have  been  working 
on  the  problem.  They  all  begin  with  the  as- 
sumption that  the  old  system  is  at  least  cracking, 
if  not,  as  Asquith  says,  broken  down:  and  that 
new  methods  must  be  devised  to  meet  the  situa- 
tion. I  have  before  me,  for  example,  the  report 
of  the  Merchants'  Association  of  New  York, 
which  attributes  the  difficulty  to  the  greed  and 
blindness  of  both  groups — labour  and  capital — 
and  suggests  the  following  remedies — which  are 
very  different  in  tenor  from  those  which  would 
have  been  recommended  by  a  similar  organiza- 
tion a  few  years  ago: 

The  recognition  by  both  employers  and  employees  that 
the  determination  to  achieve  national  prosperity  rather  than 
to  enforce  maximum  selfish  returns  should  be  the  con- 
trolling motive  in  industry. 

The  establishment  of  a  recognized  and  permanent  method 
of  conference  between  the  employer  and  his  employees. 

The  limitation  of  the  economic  law  of  supply  and  de- 
mand as  a  basis  of  labour  policy  by  the  utilization  of  a 
more  human  doctrine. 

The  Chamber  of  Commerce  of  the  United 
States  has  also  made  public  the  careful  report 


94        THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

of  a  committee  which  lays  down  thirteen 
"  principles  of  industrial  relations."  Among 
these  principles  are  the  following: 

The  public  interest  requires  adjustment  of  industrial 
relations  by  peaceful  methods. 

The  right  of  workers  to  organize  is  as  clearly  recognized 
as  that  of  any  other  element  or  part  of  the  community. 

Industrial  harmony  and  prosperity  will  be  most  ef- 
fectually promoted  by  adequate  representation  of  the 
parties  in  interest. 

The  Church,  which  represents  a  great  con- 
servative opinion  in  America,  is  moving  as  never 
before;  trying  to  understand  and  meet  the  new 
conditions  and  problems.  In  one  church  I  know 
on  a  recent  Sunday  morning  one  large  men's 
class  discussed  "  The  Relation  Between  Wages 
and  Production,"  another  was  studying  Profes- 
sor Rauschenbusch's  book  on  social  problems  in 
the  light  of  Christian  teaching,  and  a  women's 
class  was  considering  "  The  Health  of  the  Com- 
munity." 

One  great  church  movement  has  been  spend- 
ing tens  of  thousands  of  dollars  making  an  in- 
vestigation of  the  steel  strike :  and  one  need  only 
refer  to  the  Social  Reconstruction  Program 
of  the  Federal  Council  of  Churches  in  America 
and  the  pronouncement  of  the  Catholic  War 
Council  of  the  United  States  to  be  convinced 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  95 

of  the  deep  and  serious  interest  of  the  churches 
in  this  problem. 

In  a  recent  statement  the  Unitarian  Church  of 
America  says: 

"  The  claim  to  a  more  equitable  distribution 
of  the  profits  of  industry  is  not  only  clamorous, 
but  just." 

A  sense  that  the  old  system  is  unjust  and 
needs  revision  permeates  all  groups  of  our 
society.  A  prominent  business  man  took  from 
his  pocket  the  other  day  and  read  to  me  this 
paragraph : 

The  rapid  growth  of  great  cities,  the  enormous  masses 
of  immigrants  (many  of  them  ignorant  of  our  language) , 
and  the  greatly  increased  complications  of  life  have  created 
conditions  under  which  the  provisions  for  obtaining  jus- 
tice which  were  formerly  sufficient  are  sufficient  no  longer. 
I  think  the  true  criticism  which  we  should  make  upon  our 
own  conduct  is  that  we  have  been  so  busy  about  our  indi- 
vidual affairs  that  we  have  been  slow  to  appreciate  the 
changes  of  conditions  which  to  so  great  an  extent  have  put 
justice  beyond  the  reach  of  the  poor. 

;<  What  Bolshevik  said  that?"  he  inquired; 
and  answered  his  own  question,  "  It  was  Elihu 
Root." 

He  was  quoting  from  a  new  and  exhaustive 
study  of  the  "  present  denial  of  justice  to  the 
poor,"  made  by  so  respectable  a  body  as  the 
Carnegie  Foundation. 


96        THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

Not  only  public  and  business  and  religious 
bodies  are  profoundly  awakened,  but  labour 
groups  as  well. 

Labour  is  learning  that  it  has  public  as  well 
as  special  interests,  that  to  a  large  extent  it  iff 
the  public.  I  heard  a  speech  at  the  convention 
of  the  Labour  Party  at  Chicago  in  November 
by  Glenn  E.  Plumb,  whose  name  is  connected 
with  a  new  plan,  the  Plumb  plan,  for  railroad 
control.  He  set  forth  the  new  situation  in  a 
way  which  seemed  to  startle  some  of  the  labour 
leaders  there  assembled.  He  said  that  in  the 
early  days  of  organized  labour  craft  groups 
could  get  together  and  by  organization  force  up 
wages,  the  cost  of  which  the  employers  promptly 
passed  along  to  the  public.  But  what  is  the 
public?  asked  Mr.  Plumb,  and  went  on  to  show 
that  a  large  majority  of  the  public  was  made 
up  of  wage-earners  or  wage-earners'  families, 
so  that  when  a  strong  union  got  a  raise  in  wages 
most  of  it  was  paid  by  other  wage-earners.  As 
more  and  more  labour  organizations  got  into  the 
field,  the  more  wages  were  forced  up,  the  faster 
grew  the  process  by  which  increasing  wages  for 
one  group  chased  up  the  living  costs  of  all  the 
other  groups. 

He  might  also  have  said,  but  did  not,  that  not 
only  increasing  wages,  but  lessening  production, 
whether  caused  by  the  limitation  of  output  by 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  97 

labour  unions,  the  inefficiency  of  employers  or  by 
strikes  or  lockouts,  had  to  be  met  by  the  public, 
a  majority  of  which  is  also  wage-earners.  In 
short,  we  are  all  the  public  toward  each  separate 
greedy  group,  whether  of  workers  or  em- 
ployers. 

Mr.  Plumb's  idea  is  that  there  has  got  to  be  a 
"  new  deal,  a  new  arrangement  of  society  " ;  he 
has  a  "  plan  "  for  working  it  out,  so  has  the  new 
Labour  Party,  so  have  the  socialists.  I  am  not 
here  entering  into  the  merits  or  weaknesses  of 
any  of  these  plans  or  proposals,  whether  coming 
from  labour  or  capitalistic  organizations,  or 
churches  or  other  public  bodies,  but  calling  at- 
tention to  them  as  evidences  of  the  wide  awaken- 
ing to  the  seriousness  of  the  problem  and  the 
effort  to  grapple  with  it. 

A  new  note  was  also  prominent  in  the  so- 
called  "  bill-of -rights  "  issued  by  a  group  of 
119  union  leaders  at  Washington  on  December 
12,  1919.  There  is  a  clear  attempt  to  meet  the 
new  public  criticism  of  labour  organization, 
especially  regarding  productivity  and  efficiency, 
by  the  proposal  of  new  remedies  for  the  organi- 
zation of  industry.  No  group,  any  longer,  dares 
leave  the  public  out  of  account. 

All  this  groping  for  a  better  understanding 
of  conditions:  this  assumption  on  all  sides  that 
there  ought  to  be  more  justice,  more  democracy 


98        THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

in  our  industrial  relationships — however  uncer- 
tain yet  of  specific  applications  of  new  remedies 
— is  surely  the  most  hopeful  eiement  in  the 
present  unrest. 


CHAPTER  IX 

APPROACHES  TO  A  SOLUTION  OF  THE  PROBLEMS 

— BY  AMERICANIZATION,  AS  SUGGESTED 

BY  THE  EMPLOYERS 

THE  clear  recognition  by  the  public,  as 
well  as  by  the  parties  immediately  con- 
cerned, of  the  present  conditions  of 
industrial  unrest,  and  the  real  danger  to  America 
inherent  in  them,  is  surely  the  best  foundation 
for  making  a  new  start.  It  is  surprising,  the 
number  of  associations,  both  voluntary  arid 
representative;  religious,  social  and  political 
organizations,  and  trade  groups,  as  well  as  indi- 
viduals, now  at  work  upon  the  problem  in  some 
of  its  aspects.  Many  plans,  schemes,  panaceas, 
are  being  suggested:  many  experiments  being 
tried.  Some  show  great  labour:  some  repre- 
sent patient  investigation:  some  shoot  wholly 
wide  of  the  mark :  some  reveal  little  or  no  knowl- 
edge of  real  conditions.  But  their  significance 
lies  in  the  exhibition  they  give  of  sincere  desire 
to  meet  the  situation  in  some  constructive  way. 

We  know  that  we  are  in  trouble. 

We  have  the  desire  and  the  will  to  find  a  way 
out. 

99 


100      THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

What  we  lack  are  clearness  and  unity  of  pur- 
pose in  seeking  a  remedy. 

Three  main  ways  of  approach  to  a  "  solu- 
tion" present  themselves: 

First:  that  of  the  extremists  on  both  sides: 
the  "  shoot  'em  down "  program  on  the  part 
of  the  intolerant  employer:  the  "  blow  'em  up  " 
program  on  the  part  of  the  intolerant  worker. 
Either  way  lies  perdition. 

Second:  that  of  a  great  mass  of  employers 
and  employees — and  of  the  public  as  well — who 
see  the  problem  dimly  (or  some  part  of  it)  and 
who  want  really  to  find  a  constructive  solution, 
but  who  think  it  can  be  reached  in  some  large 
general  way.  They  want  a  quick,  wholesale 
remedy  that  won't  hurt  much,  or  cost  much,  or 
take  much  time.  They  do  not  yet  understand 
how  deep-seated,  of  how  long  duration,  how 
chronic,  the  disease  has  become.  For  example, 
it  appears  vividly  to  some  employers  that  in  the 
recent  great  strikes  most  of  the  trouble  was 
caused  by  "  foreigners,"  by  "  aliens,"  and  "  alien 
ideas."  They  do  not  follow  the  extremists  in 
demanding  instant  suppression  and  deportation, 
but  they  do  jump  at  what  seems  to  them  a  ready 
and  wholesale  remedy:  "Americanization." 
Americanize  these  workers  and  you  cure  the 
trouble ! 

On  the  part  of  the  workers  there  is  a  similar 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  101 

example  of  the  desire  for  a  broad  general 
remedy.  They  believe  that  much  of  the  trouble 
is  due  to  unjust  laws,  the  oppression  of  judicial 
injunctions,  outworn  political  methods,  and  pro- 
pose a  new  political  party  which  will  overturn 
the  old  system,  or  parts  of  it,  and  construct  a 
new  one  by  law. 

Third:  the  third  group  is  a  much  smaller  one 
as  yet,  but  it  is  made  up  of  those  employers  and 
managers  and  men  who  are  beginning  to  see  the 
depth  and  width  and  length  of  the  problem,  and 
whose  approach  is  based  upon  the  patient 
method  of  scientific  inquiry  guided  by  a  spirit 
of  genuine  goodwill.  They  strive  to  know  all 
the  facts  and  to  get  at  a  real  cure,  through 
steady  day-by-day  practice  and  experimentation 
in  shops  and  factories.  These  are  the  men  actu- 
ally on  the  ground,  not  distant  financiers,  nor 
distant  labour  leaders,  nor  distant  theorists. 
These  are  the  men  who  must  get  at  a  modus 
Vivendi  or  be  ruined.  The  work  that  some  of 
these  good-will  employers  and  managers  are 
doing  is  as  fine  and  high  as  anything  to  be  found 
in  this  world  to-day. 

Now,  in  this  chapter  and  the  next,  in  order  to 
get  at  least  two  of  the  more  general  remedies  out 
of  the  way  first,  I  will  take  up  the  subject  of 
the  present  campaign  for  Americanization  as 
suggested  by  the  employers'  end  of  the  con- 


UBRAW 

UNIVERSITY  Of  CALIFORNIA 
RIVERSIDE 


102      THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

troversy:  and  political  action  as  suggested  by 
the  workers.  Both  are  valuable  movements:  our 
foreigners  do  need  "  Americanization  "  and  need 
it  badly:  and  the  workers  do  need  political  ex- 
pression: but  we  must  understand  thoroughly 
what  is  implied  by  each  movement  and  how  far 
it  is  intended  to  go  with  it.  In  the  following 
chapters  I  shall  exhibit  some  of  the  more  inten- 
sive and  scientific  experiments  and  try  to  show 
how  far  each  is  effective  in  meeting  the  trouble 
— for  example,  welfare  work,  the  shop -commit- 
tee system,  the  method  of  continuous  negotiation 
and  arbitration  as  remarkably  practised  in  the 
clothing  industry,  the  new  science  of  manage- 
ment as  stimulated  from  the  employers'  side, 
and  the  new  impulse  toward  co-operative  enter- 
prises among  the  workers. 

Consider  now  the  subject  of  "  Americaniza- 
tion." I  know  of  a  meeting  held  not  long  ago 
by  a  group  of  business  men  in  New  York  City 
to  discuss  this  problem.  They  were  deeply  con- 
cerned about  it.  The  suggestion  made  in  all 
seriousness  by  the  principal  speaker  was  that 
a  certain  number  of  those  present  contribute 
enough  money  to  have  a  large  number  of 
copies  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States 
printed  and  distributed.  He  said  that  there  was 
a  Bible  in  practically  every  hotel-room  in 
America:  there  ought  also  to  be  a  Constitution. 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  103 

People  must  get  back  to  the  sources!  At  an- 
other meeting  I  know  of  a  speaker  suggested  a 
wide  advertising  of  American  principles  in  the 
newspapers:  said  that  it  had  been  already 
adopted  with  great  success  in  one  or  two  cities. 
Another  plan  provided  for  a  resurrection  of 
the  "  four-minute  men "  who  spoke  so  effec- 
tively for  the  liberty  loan  campaigns  during 
the  war,  in  which  American  principles  would 
be  presented  in  theatres,  schools  and  so  on 
— in  four  minutes!  Other  proposals,  many 
of  them  very  valuable  so  far  as  they  go,  pro- 
vided for  the  wide  teaching  of  the  English 
language  in  night  schools,  shop  schools  and 
the  like.  This  is  actually  being  done  in  many 
places. 

I  know  of  one  plant  in  Milwaukee,  a  tan- 
nery, where  406  foreign-born  employees  recently 
completed  nine  weeks  instruction  in  the  English 
language,  speaking,  reading,  writing  and  arith- 
metic. They  had  an  hour  every  day  for  five 
days  each  week  on  the  company's  time  and  with- 
out loss  of  wages.  The  results  were  excellent. 
There  are  said  to  be  500  industrial  plants  in 
America  where  work  of  this  sort  is  being  carried 
on.  It  is  not  only  good  for  the  workers  but  it 
pays  the  employer  to  have  a  "  one  language 
plant."  Certain  cities  like  Cleveland  have  begun 
serious  campaigns  to  teach  English  to  foreigners 


104      THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

and  there  has  been  a  wide  revival  of  interest  in 
night  schools  and  adult  schools. 

There  have  also  been  many  proposals  to  for- 
ward the  same  end  by  law.  In  its  report,  after 
investigating  the  steel  strike,  the  Senate  Com- 
mittee recommended  a  change  in  our  naturaliza- 
tion laws  to  require  "  some  education  of  all 
foreigners,  at  least  to  the  extent  of  speaking  the 
American  language,"  and  providing  that  if  they 
do  not  acquire  this  knowledge  within  five  years 
after  their  arrival  they  may  be  deported. 

All  of  these  suggestions,  though  some  of 
them  indicate  an  extraordinary  failure  to  visual- 
ize the  stupendous  nature  of  the  problem  they 
are  attacking  so  lightly,  are  significant  of  one 
great  fact — and  this  is  the  conviction  that  the 
"  melting-pot "  idea  of  America  has  failed,  the 
idea  that  merely  being  in  America  was  enough, 
by  some  kind  of  magic  hocus-pocus,  to  turn  vast 
numbers  of  foreigners  of  old  and  resistant  races 
into  good  Americans. 

Consider  this  familiar  and  yet  always  startling 
fact,  that  in  the  last  twenty-two  years  since  1897 
— the  period  of  the  greatest  expansion  of  Ameri- 
can industry — over  15,000,000  immigrants  have 
come  to  America.  Twice  as  many  people  as 
there  are  to-day  in  all  Canada!  A  stupendous 
migration!  Unlike  the  earlier  immigrants,  who 
distributed  themselves  more  evenly  throughout 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  105 

the  nation,  these  later  peoples  have  tended  to 
settle  in  indigestible  lumps  in  the  industrial 
regions.  Foreigners  largely  dominate  the  great 
basic  industries  of  the  nation:  coal,  steel,  oil, 
textiles,  the  packing-houses  and  the  clothing 
trades.  We  have  been  so  confident  of  the  magic 
of  the  melting-pot,  so  busy  making  money,  that 
we  were  blind  to  the  fact  that  instead  of  trans- 
forming these  masses  of  foreigners,  American 
institutions  were  being  transformed  by  them. 
After  an  investigation  of  certain  conditions  in 
the  textile  industry  eight  years  ago  I  wrote : 

American  workmen  with  American  standards  have 
largely  disappeared  from  the  textile  industry,  and  even 
the  solid  English  and  Scotch  workers  are  now  flying  before 
the  immigrants  from  southern  Europe  who  can,  or  will 
attempt  to,  exist  on  lower  wages.  The  tendency  is  all 
toward  grading  downward.  The  danger  is  that  these 
low-living,  hopeless  conditions  will  become  the  established 
mode  of  life.  They  may  become  the  typical  American 
conditions. 

There  is,  indeed,  much  to  be  done  with  educa- 
tion, with  the  teaching  of  English,  with  instruc- 
tion in  American  ideas,  but  these  things  barely 
scratch  the  surface  of  the  problem. 

*  When  we  get  them  so  that  they  can  under- 
stand us,"  asks  one  critic  pertinently,  "  what 
are  we  going  to  say  to  them? " 


106      THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

Americanism  has  got  to  be  learned  as  the 
original  Americans  learned  it,  by  practice,  by 
great  freedom  to  talk,  to  read,  to  associate.  One 
great  fount  of  Americanism  was  the  New 
England  town-meeting;  representing  free  asso- 
ciation, free  discussion,  common  effort.  But 
the  masses  of  foreigners  in  many  industries  are 
prevented  from  having  eithdr  free  associations 
among  themselves  to  affect  their  own  lives,  or 
free  association  or  co-operation  with  the  manage- 
ment to  make  industry  more  efficient  and  pro- 
ductive. And  in  some  cases  the  conditions  of 
their  employment  are  such  that  they  could  not 
possibly  avail  themselves  of  such  agencies  of 
"  Americanization "  if  they  had  them. 

I  met  a  Serbian  steel  workers  at  Gary,  who 
said  to  me  passionately: 

"  They  accuse  us  of  not  becoming  Americans. 
When  do  we  get  time?  Can  a  man  working  in  a 
blast-furnace — and  anybody  knows  that  ain't 
no  boy's  job — twelve  hours  a  day,  or  even  ten 
hours,  get  time  to  learn  English — or  learn  any- 
thing else?  What  in  hell  do  they  expect  of  us?  " 

They  have,  indeed,  night  schools  in  Gary 
and  in  other  steel  centres,  but  as  one  teacher 
told  me  plaintively,  not  many  come  for  very 
long.  "  They  can't  keep  awake,"  he  said. 
Father  Kazincy,  a  Polish  priest  in  Pennsylvania, 
bitterly  complained  of  the  long  hours  and  Sun- 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  107 

day  work  to  the  Senate  Committee  because  his 
people  could  not  "  have  any  religion."  He 
said  regarding  the  Americanization  schools: 

;'  They  are  not  a  very  great  success  for  the 
simple  reason  that  the  men  are  overworked  and 
they  do  not  feel  like  going  to  the  schools  and 
depriving  their  families  of  their  company  after 
these  long  hours.  Sundays  they  have  none, 
for  most  of  them  go  to  work." 

In  spite  of  all  the  faults  and  excesses  of 
labour  unionism — and  they  are  many — I  think 
no  one  who  studies  the  situation  honestly  can 
escape  the  conclusion  that  it  is  one  of  the  very 
greatest  of  all  agencies  of  Americanization  for 
these  foreigners:  for  here  they  really  practise 
free  association,  free  speech,  free  action.  Union- 
ism to-day  is  almost  the  only  agency  that  is  free 
from  any  distinctions  of  "  race,  colour  or  previ- 
ous condition  of  servitude."  I  once  investigated 
a  strike  among  the  clothing  workers  in  New 
York.  I  found  in  the  union  Jews,  Americans, 
Germans,  Italians,  Lithuanians,  Poles  and  even 
Irish  and  Scotch,  all  working  together  in  a 
common  cause.  No  other  force  tends  more 
strongly  to  secure  the  amalgamation  of  these 
diverse  peoples  or  to  inspire  them  with  a  com- 
mon public  opinion  than  these  unions.  To-day, 
I  believe  the  unions  in  the  clothing  industry  in 
America  which  are  now  co-operating  fully  with 


108      THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

the  employers,  are  doing  more  to  hold  their  own 
radical  elements  in  check — by  the  force  of  their 
own  inner  public  opinion — than  any  policy  of 
outside  force  and  deportation  on  the  part  of  the 
government  could  possibly  do. 

The  American  elements  in  our  population  are 
fully  as  much  in  need  of  training  in  American- 
ism as  most  of  the  foreigners:  for  Americanism 
is  not  a  language,  or  a  flag,  or  even  a  constitu- 
tion, but  a  certain  free  and  generous  point  of 
view.  It  is  a  spirit:  an  attitude  toward  life:  a 
full  acceptance  of  the  idea  that  all  men  should 
have  free  opportunity  for  the  development  of 
the  best  that  is  in  them.  It  cannot  be  given 
from  above:  it  has  to  come  from  within.  It 
cannot  look  upon  any  man  as  a  mere  cog  in  a 
machine,  as  do  those  who  believe  in  the  com- 
modity theory  of  labour,  nor  yet  as  a  machine, 
as  the  early  and  orthodox  scientific  managers 
seemed  to  do:  but  he  must  be  considered  as  a 
human  being.  And  in  the  larger  part  of  Ameri- 
can industry  to-day  this  kind  of  real  American- 
ism is  denied  the  workers  and  denied  them  by 
Americans.  It  is  the  great  fundamental  error 
of  our  system. 

There  must  be,  in  short,  a  real  application  of 
the  principles  of  American  democracy  to  in- 
dustry— "  a  full  recognition  of  the  right  of 
these  who  work,  in  whatever  rank,"  as  President 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  109 

Wilson  expresses  it,  "  to  participate  in  some 
organic  way  in  every  decision  which  directly 
affects  their  welfare  or  the  part  they  play  in 
industry." 

Herbert  Hoover  expresses  the  same  idea  in 
another  way: 

'  The  paramount  business  of  every  American 
to-day  is  this  business  of  finding  a  solution  to 
these  issues,  but  this  solution  must  be  found  by 
Americans,  in  a  practical  American  way,  based 
upon  American  ideas,  on  American  philosophy 
of  life." 

He  says  that  the  "  primary  question  is  the 
better  division  of  the  products  of  industry  and 
the  steady  development  of  higher  productivity." 
There  must  be  a  "  better  distribution  of 
profits  " :  and  maximum  production  "  cannot  be 
obtained  without  giving  a  voice  in  the  adminis- 
tration of  production  to  all  sections  of  the  com- 
munity concerned  in  the  specific  problem:  .  .  . 
it  cannot  be  obtained  by  the  domination  of  any 
one  element." 

In  short,  there  must  be  more  democracy  in 
industry.  No  one  autocratic  element,  whether 
the  great  steel  employers  at  one  end  of  the 
scale,  or  the  radical  labour  leaders  at  the  other, 
can  be  permitted  to  dominate:  there  must  be  a 
greater  representation  in  administration  of  all 
the  elements  concerned:  and  there  must  be  a 


110      THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

better  distribution  of  the  products  of  the  com- 
mon toil.  This  is  the  true  Americanization  of 
industry:  and  it  is  the  only  method  by  which 
production  of  goods,  now  the  greatest  need  of 
the  world,  can  be  stimulated. 


CHAPTER  X 

APPROACHES  TO  A  SOLUTION  OF  THE  PROBLEM — 

BY  POLITICAL  ACTION,  AS  SUGGESTED  BY 

THE  WORKERS — THE  NEW 

LABOUR  PARTY 

ONE  striking  product  of  the  present  up- 
heaval of  industrial  unrest  is  a  new 
national  Labour  Party,  born  at  a  con- 
vention at  Chicago  in  November,  1919. 

It  is  important  to  inquire,  if  we  are  to  under- 
stand the  present  situation,  just  what  this  move- 
ment represents,  who  compose  it,  and  how  much 
it  means.  We  know  what  a  tremendous  power 
the  Labour  Party  is  becoming  in  the  politics  of 
Great  Britain:  does  this  new  movement  presage 
a  similar  development  in  America? 

I  attended  the  convention  at  Chicago,  as  I  also 
attended  the  Convention  of  the  British  Labour 
Party  in  London,  June,  1918,  at  which  the 
widely  heralded  report  upon  reconstruction — 
really  the  declaration  of  the  new  general  policy 
of  labour  in  the  British  Isles — was  adopted. 

Several  features  of  the  convention  at  Chicago 
are  worthy  of  note.  In  the  first  place  the  fact 
that  it  was  held  at  Chicago  is  significant. 

ill 


112      THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

Labour  is  more  closely  organized,  more  self- 
conscious,  more  advanced  in  its  views  in  Chicago 
than  in  any  other  American  city.  It  was  the 
first  large  city  to  have  a  local  labour  party: 
in  the  last  campaign  (1919)  it  polled  56,000 
votes  for  John  Fitzpatrick  for  mayor  (while 
the  socialist  candidates  polled  28,000)  out  of  a 
total  poll  of  over  600,000  votes.  This,  then,  was 
the  friendliest  atmosphere  for  such  a  convention 
that  could  be  found  in  the  country. 

It  was  an  unexpectedly  spontaneous  conven- 
tion. It  was  run  from  the  floor  and  not  from 
the  rostrum.  It  was  not  cut  and  dried.  I 
think  the  number  of  delegates  who  came  (there 
were  about  900  from  thirty-five  states)  rather 
surprised  the  promoters  of  the  enterprise.  A 
great  many  false  reports  were  'disseminated 
about  it:  that  the  convention  split  hopelessly  on 
several  issues:  one  of  them  prohibition:  and 
that  the  delegates  from  the  Farmers'  Non- 
Partisan  League,  with  Governor  Frazier  at  their 
head,  had  withdrawn.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  it 
was  an  unusually  harmonious  convention  which 
did  the  work  it  set  out  to  do:  and  Governor 
Frazier  did  not  withdraw,  because  he  was  never 
there:  and  the  Non-Partisan  League  fraternal 
delegates  remained  to  the  end.  The  new  party 
was  organized  and  is  preparing  to  place  candi- 
dates in  nomination  not  only  for  national  offices 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  113 

at  the  election  next  fall,  but  also  to  enter  as 
many  local  and  state  campaigns  as  possible. 

Two  warring  attitudes  toward  political  action 
have  long  existed  in  the  ranks  of  organized 
labour  in  America.  One  of  them  is  represented 
by  the  conservative  wing  of  the  American 
Federation  of  Labour  headed  by  Gompers. 
Gompers  has  always  fought  independent  politi- 
cal action:  or  a  distinct  labour  party.  He  has 
been  for  the  policy  of  working  just  as  the  cor- 
porations have  always  worked,  as  the  anti- 
Saloon  League,  and  the  Women  Suffrage  As- 
sociations have  worked:  within  the  old  parties, 
or  by  lobbying  in  Congress  or  legislatures,  or 
by  supporting  this  or  that  candidate  upon  a 
declaration  of  his  views  concerning  certain  de- 
mands of  labour.  He  has  never  even  been  as 
advanced  in  his  method  as  the  Farmers'  Non- 
Partisan  League  of  the  northwest,  which  accepts 
the  old  two-party  system,  but  tries  to  seize 
control  of  one  of  them  from  within — as  it  has 
succeeded  in  doing  in  North  Dakota. 

Gompers'  policy  for  years  was  attacked  by  the 
radical  wing  of  the  American  Federation 
of  Labour  led  chiefly  by  the  socialists,  and 
once  or  twice  he  was  nearly  unseated.  The 
war  smashed  the  old  socialist  party:  but 
by  no  means  altered  the  views  of  the  left 
wing  of  labour  regarding  political  action.  And 


114      THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

the  convention  at  Chicago  was,  in  reality,  the 
independent  expression  of  these  radicals.  Some 
of  its  chief  leaders,  like  Max  Hayes  and  Duncan 
McDonald,  President  of  the  Illinois  Coal- 
Miners,  were  formerly  members  of  the  socialist 
party.  Its  chief  leader,  John  Fitzpatrick,  repre- 
sents the  "  Chicago  crowd,"  which,  while  main- 
taining their  position  within  the  American  Fed- 
eration of  Labour,  are  more  or  less  openly  in 
revolt  against  Gompers  and  many  of  his  poli- 
cies. The  Chicago  Convention  was  counte- 
nanced by  Gompers  in  no  way,  nor  did  any 
national  union  send  official  delegates:  the  con- 
vention was  a  rank-and-file  movement  made  up 
of  delegates  from  local  or  central  organizations 
in  thirty-five  states. 

The  spirit  of  the  convention  was  rather  well 
typified  by  the  personality  of  its  principal 
leader:  John  Fitzpatrick.  Fitzpatrick  was  born 
in  Ireland,  is  a  horse-shoer  by  trade,  worked  as 
a  youth  in  the  packing-houses  at  Chicago.  He 
is  a  Catholic  and  a  total  abstainer.  He  has  been 
for  years  active  in  the  labour  movement,  and 
President  of  the  Chicago  Federation  of  Labour. 
He  is  a  powerfully  built  man,  smokes  a  pipe 
continually,  is  a  whirl-wind  orator,  and  much 
trusted  by  his  following.  He  is  an  excellent 
organizer:  but  he  represents  a  type  of  labour 
leader  that  is  passing:  the  fiercely  oratorical, 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  115 

denunciatory,  heavy-fighting  type,  which  came 
up  doing  great  service  in  the  hurly-burly  of  the 
early  days  of  labour  organization.  He  knows 
well  the  strategy  of  strikes,  but  has  done  no  real 
constructive  or  political  thinking:  has  no  states- 
manlike plan. 

His  argument  for  a  new  labour  party  is  based 
upon  the  conviction — which  is  shared  by  a  very 
large  and  growing  proportion  of  organized 
labour — that  the  two  old  parties  are  controlled 
by  capitalists  and  Wall  Street,  that  the  courts 
are  used  by  employers'  interests  to  defeat  the 
aspirations  of  labour,  that  public  offices  gener- 
ally are  filled  by  "labour-haters";  and  there 
being  no  justice  or  right  to  be  expected  from 
either  of  the  old  parties,  the  only  alternative  is 
for  labour  to  have  its  own  political  organization. 
Fitzpatrick's  speech  at  the  convention  was  de- 
scribed by  one  of  the  delegates  as  the  "  groan  of 
a  wounded  giant."  Like  most  of  the  other 
speeches  it  was  shot  through  with  a  fierce  spirit 
of  revolt — and  there  was  ammunition  a-plenty 
at  hand  for  every  speaker.  They  denounced  the 
government  injunction  against  the  miners:  the 
threatened  anti-Strike  provisions  in  the  Cummins 
railroad  bill:  the  deportations:  the  treatment  of 
strikers  in  the  steel  centres:  the  profiteers. 

The  mission  of  the  Labour  Party  was  thus 
set  forth  in  the  resolutions: 


116      THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

The  Labour  Party  was  organized  to  assemble  into  a  new 
majority  the  men  and  women  who  work,  but  who  have  been 
scattered  as  helpless  minorities  in  the  old  parties  under  the 
leadership  of  the  confidence  men  of  big  business. 

These  confidence  men,  by  exploitation,  rob  the  workers 
of  the  product  of  their  activities  and  use  the  huge  profits 
thus  gained  to  finance  the  old  political  parties,  by  which 
they  gain  and  keep  control  of  the  government.  They  with- 
hold money  from  the  worker  and  use  it  to  make  him  pay  for 
his  own  defeat. 

Labour  is  aware  of  this  and  throughout  the  world  the 
workers  have  reached  the  determination  to  reverse  this  con- 
dition and  take  control  of  their  own  lives  and  their  own 
government. 

In  this  country  this  can  and  must  be  achieved  peacefully 
by  the  workers  uniting  and  marching  in  unbroken  phalanx 
to  the  ballot  boxes.  It  is  the  mission  of  the  Labour 
Party  to  bring  this  to  pass. 


But  when  the  delegates  who,  like  Fitzpatrick, 
expressed  their  sense  of  the  injustices  and 
wrongs  that  labour  suffers,  came  to  the  forging 
of  a  platform:  a  constructive  policy:  they  ex- 
hibited the  greatest  possible  contrast  to  the 
British  Labour  Party.  Nothing  had  been 
thought  out,  or  worked  out.  Instead  of  a  care- 
ful, studied  plan  of  social  reconstruction  such  as 
British  Labour  adopted,  their  platform  repre- 
sents a  miscellaneous  collection  of  remedies  sug- 
gested, more  or  less  extemporaneously,  by  vari- 
ous delegates.  Apparently  they  put  in  every 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  117 

reform  that  any  delegate  wanted — from  the 
nationalization  of  unused  land  to  the  abolition 
of  the  United  States  Senate. 

Certain  provisions  aim  to  reach  the  radical 
farmers'  group,  for  example: 

Credits  for  farmers  "  as  cheap  and  available  as  those 
afforded  any  other  legitimate  and  responsible  industry." 

Farmers  to  be  assured  prices  for  their  products  that 
will  meet  cost  of  production  and  "  a  reasonable  margin." 

Women's  organizations  are  favoured  in  these 
planks : — 

Single  standards  of  morals  in  enforcement  of  laws  af- 
fecting divorce  and  the  sexual  relation,  with  age  of  con- 
sent for  both  sexes  at  18  years. 

A  wage  "  based  upon  the  cost  of  living  and  the  right 
to  maintain  a  family  in  health  and  comfort  without  labour 
of  mothers  and  children." 

Prohibition  of  labour  of  children  under  16  years. 

Among  the  other  planks  are  legacies  from  the 
old  populist  party,  the  "  Bull  Moose "  move- 
ment, and  planks  aimed  to  satisfy  the  more 
advanced  socialists  and  other  radical  groups, 
the  municipal  reformers  and  the  trade  unionists, 
as  follows: — 

Repeal  of  the  espionage  act. 

Freedom  of  speech  and  assemblage. 

A  league  of  nations  based  upon  the  14  points. 


118      THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

"  All  basic  industries  which  require  large  scale  produc- 
tion and  are  in  reality  upon  a  noncompetitive  basis  " — rail- 
ways, mines  and  forests — to  be  nationalized. 

Endorsement  of  the  Plumb  plan  for  railroad  control. 

Heavier  income  and  inheritance  taxes. 

The  banking  business  "  to  be  placed  in  the  hands  of  the 
federal  government." 

An  executive  budget  in  Congress. 

Abolition  or  curtailment  of  the  supreme  court's  right  of 
veto  over  national  legislation. 

Popular  election  of  federal  judges. 

Guaranteed  right  of  workers  to  bargain  collectively. 

State  or  federal  aid  to  provide  land  and  homes  for 
residents  of  town  and  country. 

Workers  to  have  a  real  voice  in  the  management  of  busi- 
ness and  industry. 

Abolition  of  detective  and  strike-breaking  agencies. 

Protection  of  workers  from  the  competition  of  "  convict- 
made,,  sweat-shop  or  child-labour  products  or  goods  brought 
from  other  countries  that  are  produced  by  cheap  labour  for 
the  purpose  of  underselling  the  American  product." 

A  maximum  working  day  of  eight  hours,  and  a  44-hour 
week. 

Abolition  of  unemployment  by  various  methods. 

Continuation  of  war-time  soldiers'  and  sailors'  insurance 
and  the  extension  of  such  life  insurance  by  the  government 
without  profit  to  all  men  and  women. 

All  government  work  to  be  done  directly,  not  by 
contract. 

Union  label  on  all  federal,  state  or  local  government 
supplies  and  materials. 

Full  political  rights  for  railroad  and  civil  service  em- 
ployees. 

Home  rule  for  municipalities. 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  119 

Amendments   to   the    United    States   Constitution   to  be 
submitted  to  the  direct  vote  of  the  people. 
Initiative,  referendum  and  recall. 

Here  are  thirty-two  planks — a  mixture  of 
political,  economic,  social  and  financial  reforms 
— representing  big  and  little  ideas  from  every 
source,  and  intended  to  attract  all  groups  of 
revolt. 

And  yet,  although  it  welcomes  to  its  rank 
workers  of  both  "  hand  and  brain  "  in  support  of 
"  the  principles  of  political,  social  and  industrial 
democracy  "  it  reveals  no  larger  vision — as  do 
both  the  British  and  French  labour  movements — 
of  broad  public  and  national  needs.  Take  the 
single  matter  of  large  and  efficient  production 
which  is  to-day  for  the  publics  of  all  nations 
becoming  a  crying  issue.  In  both  England  and 
France  immediate  and  large  production  are 
being  recognized  as  truly  the  concern  of  labour 
as  well  as  of  other  elements  of  the  population. 
Here,  for  example,  are  some  sentences  from 
the  resolutions  of  the  British  Labour  Party: 

What  the  nation  needs  is  undoubtedly  a  great  bound 
onward  in  its  aggregate  productivity.  But  this  cannot  be 
secured  merely  by  pressing  the  manual  workers  to  more 
strenuous  toil,  or  even  by  encouraging  the  "  Captains  of 
Industry  "  to  a  less  wasteful  organization  of  their  several 
enterprises  on  a  profit-making  basis.  What  the  Labour 
Party  looks  to  is  a  genuinely  scientific  reorganization  of  the 


120      THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

nation's  industry,  the  equitable  sharing  of  the  proceeds 
among  all  who  participate  in  any  capacity  and  the  adop- 
tion of  those  systems  and  methods  of  administration  and 
control  that  may  be  found,  best  to  promote,  not  profiteering, 
but  the  public  interest. 

The  French  Confederation  of  Labour  at  its 
Congress  at  Lyons  in  September,  1919,  also 
shows  that  it  sees  clearly  the  need  of  greater 
production,  especially  since  the  war.  Its  reso- 
lution says: 

To  continue  production  in  order  to  satisfy  the  needs  of 
men,  to  increase  it  in  order  to  put  at  the  disposal  of  all  a 
greater  total  of  consumable  wealth,  these  are  questions  to 
which  the  world  situation  resulting  from  the  war  has  given 
a  formidable  importance. 

The  labour  movement  affirms  that  it  should  and  can  an- 
swer to  this  appeal,  but  it  also  declares  that  any  effort  in 
this  direction  is  irreconcilable  with  the  maintenance  of  the 
present  regime.  That  appeal  to  labour  to  which  all 
labourers  are  ready  to  respond,  must  henceforth  rest  upon 
the  complete  recognition  of  the  rights  of  labour. 

It  is  probably  unfair  to  compare  this  young 
labour  party  with  the  much  older  and  more 
experienced  movements  of  Europe :  but  we  must 
try  to  see  exactly  where  it  stands.  It  faces  a 
much  greater  problem,  in  other  ways,  than  the 
British  Labour  Party.  Here  the  new  party 
has  not  even  the  support  of  its  own  group,  as  in 
England,  for  the  powerful  following  of  Gompers 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  121 

is  in  opposition.  It  thus  represents  only  one 
wing  of  the  labour  movement. 

America  is  also  a  huge  country  with  far  more 
diversified  interests  than  any  European  country. 
Here  the  agricultural  and  small-town  vote  is 
still  enormously  powerful:  and  the  new  Labour 
Party  has  not  yet  convinced  even  the  radical 
farmers  of  the  Northwest.  While  it  expresses 
the  old  revolts  it  lacks  as  yet  any  flaming  crea- 
tive vision  or  moral  appeal  which,  in  America 
particularly,  is  essential  to  any  strong  popular 
movement. 

And  yet  it  is  plain  to  see  that  American 
workers  and  American  farmers  are  rapidly 
awakening  to  political  consciousness:  to  the 
necessity  of  some  political  expression  to  supple- 
ment the  direct  economic  pressure  of  labour  and 
co-operative  organizations  and  strikes.  No  one 
who  talks  with  labour  leaders  or  attends  labour 
gatherings  can  avoid  this  conclusion.  They  all 
agree  to  it,  but  differ  as  to  method.  The  future 
is  at  present  largely  in  the  hands  of  the  old 
parties  and  the  old  party  leadership.  If  the  old 
parties  offer  programs  of  reconstruction  which 
convince  the  labour  groups  as  being  genuine  and 
honest  they  will  hold  the  great  masses  of  organ- 
ized labour  now  wavering  between  the  conserva- 
tive policy  of  Gompers  and  the  radical  new- 
party  idea  of  Fitzpatrick.  For  the  whole  labour 


122      THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

movement  in  America  is  now,  as  never  before, 
in  a  plastic  or  fluid  state.  If  the  old  parties  on 
the  other  hand  exhibit  no  vision  of  the  needs 
of  the  new  time:  or  if  they  make  insincere  pro- 
posals— as  they  have  so  often  done  in  the  past 
— to  catch  the  labour  vote,  then  the  drift  to  a 
new  radical  party  movement  (whether  based 
upon  this  Chicago  Labour  Party  or  some  other) 
will  be  swift  and  sure.  The  war  has  made  a 
profound  impression  upon  labour — here  and  in 
Europe — and  old  party  leaders  who  think  that 
labour  is  going  back  quietly  to  its  old-time 
status  are  doomed  to  disappointment. 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE  GENIUS  OF  MECHANISM  AND  THE  SOUL  OF 

MAN — THE  SPIRITUAL  ASPECT  OF 

THE  PROBLEM 

THIS  chapter  is  an  interlude:  but  like  any 
well-regulated  interlude,  the  play  can- 
not somehow  go  on  without  it. 

I  should  like  to  step  out  for  a  moment  before 
the  next  act — like  some  prologue — and  with 
my  thumb  pointed  backward  at  the  obscured 
actors  upon  the  stage  (who  take  themselves  so 
seriously!)  take  you,  the  audience,  into  my  con- 
fidence for  a  moment. 

I  have  already  exhibited,  as  best  I  could, 
some  of  the  forces  at  work  in  the  present  indus- 
trial unrest,  some  of  the  leadership,  some  of  the 
more  evident  and  general  devices  of  reform. 
The  plot  and  the  protagonists,  the  conflict  and 
the  crisis,  are  more  or  less  made  clear.  Some- 
thing of  the  high  theme,  the  motif,  the  spirit,  is 
yet  wanting. 

I  can  perhaps  best  indicate  one  part  at  least 
of  the  theme  or  the  motif  by  describing  my  own 
first  vivid  impression  upon  visiting  a  steel  town. 

I  went  down  to  the  city  of  Gary  in  a  snow- 

123 


124      THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

storm.  A  cold  raw  wind  was  blowing  off  the 
Illinois  prairies.  The  train  was  cold.  The  city 
I  had  just  left  behind  was  cold.  It  was  cold, 
and  darkened  at  night.  Some  of  the  factories 
were  closed:  the  stores,  although  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  holiday  rush,  were  open  only  part  of 
the  time.  I  was  going  from  a  city  suffering 
from  a  coal  strike  to  a  city  suffering  from  a  steel 
strike. 

It  is  an  hour's  journey  from  Chicago  to  Gary. 
Gary  is  one  of  the  magic  cities  of  the  world.  It 
has  to-day  about  80,000  people,  and  broad,  well- 
paved  streets  and  fine  public  buildings,  and  a 
school  system  with  an  international  reputation. 
No  steel  mills  in  the  world  equal  in  modern  im- 
provements those  at  Gary.  And  yet  thirteen 
years  ago — as  I  have  already  said — the  place 
where  Gary  now  stands  was  a  desolate  waste  of 
sand  dunes.  Wild  ducks,  flying  in  from  the  lake, 
settled  in  the  sluggish  inlet  and  were  undis- 
turbed: foxes  skulked  among  the  scrubby  oak- 
trees.  One  of  the  great  steel  masters,  coming 
to  look  over  the  site  of  the  future  city,  was 
lost  among  the  dunes  near  the  present  location 
of  the  Carnegie  Library. 

It  was  a  big,  free,  bold  thing  to  do — the  build- 
ing of  Gary.  It  was  well  and  truly  dreamed. 
This  was  the  one  spot,  here  at  the  foot  of  Lake 
Michigan,  where  the  ore  from  northern  ranges, 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  125 

floated  down  in  huge,  tubby  cargo-boats,  could 
most  easily  and  cheaply  meet  the  coal  from 
southern  mines  and  be  fused  into  steel.  The 
mills  could  take  advantage,  in  distributing  their 
product,  of  the  net-work  of  railroads  centring 
around  the  southern  loop  of  the  lakes.  They  had 
near  at  hand  the  vast  human  reservoir  of 
Chicago  upon  which  to  draw  for  their  labour. 
How  well  thought  out:  how  wonderfully 
achieved ! 

I  went  to  Gary  not  alone  because  it  was  one 
of  the  chief  centres  of  the  steel  strike,  but  be- 
cause among  all  the  cities  in  America,  the  entire 
industrial  scene  nowhere  more  vividly  presents 
itself. 

Consider  what  an  opportunity  this  magic  city 
offers  the  observer.  For  here  industry  has  had 
a  clear  field:  no  limiting  traditions,  no  restric- 
tions. Here,  if  anywhere,  American  industry  is 
to  be  seen  exactly  as  it  most  desires  to  be  seen. 
It  has  had  scope  and  space,  unlimited  money, 
time,  power — every  ingredient  for  miracle-mak- 
ing— to  give  form  and  fashion  to  its  utmost 
dream.  Here  we  have  it,  then,  at  Gary — the 
life-like  portrait  of  American  industry,  deline- 
ated by  its  own  bold  hand. 

Let  us  look  at  it  narrowly :  for  like  any  great 
masterpiece,  it  is  as  enlightening  for  what  it  cun- 
ningly conceals  as  for  what  it  easily  discloses. 


126      THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

There  is  character  here,  certainly,  a  kind  of 
stark  power,  a  kind  of  bold  originality.  "  Huge 
and  alert,  irascible  yet  strong."  Is  it  grim? 
Well,  Vulcan  is  toiling  at  his  blazing  forges. 
Is  it  benevolent?  Is  it  cruel?  And  is  there 
not  something  strange  about  the  eyes?  Is  it  so 
nakedly  American  that  we  should  hesitate  to 
draw  the  curtain  and  exhibit  it  to  a  visitor  from 
Mars? 

I  had  confidently  expected  when  I  went  to 
Gary  to  be  chiefly  interested  in  the  men  and 
women  there:  the  workers,  the  bosses,  the  ob- 
serving newspaper  editors,  the  merchants, 
lawyers,  teachers:  but  curiously  I  was  not.  I 
went,  indeed,  first  of  all  to  see  the  men  of  the 
town,  many  of  them  hot  with  the  passions  en- 
gendered by  the  strike,  I  saw  the  unexpectedly 
comfortable  homes  of  the  skilled  workers,  and 
the  wonderful  schools,  and  the  library,  and  the 
post-office,  and  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  building.  I 
sat  with  the  strikers  in  the  dingy  coop  they  called 
headquarters.  I  talked  with  mill  officials  and 
watched  with  some  wonder  the  soldiers  who 
were  protecting  the  town — but  everywhere  I 
went,  during  every  moment  of  the  time,  the 
centre  of  the  scene  was  occupied  with  the 
stupendous  spectacle  of  the  mill.  Its  tall,  slim 
stacks,  plumed  with  strange-coloured  smoke, 
its  broad-shouldered  blast  furnaces,  its  portly 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  127 

ore-piles,  dominate  the  town.  At  night  the 
flare  of  its  converters  signal  the  very  heavens: 
and  no  one  can  escape  the  sound  of  its  brazen 
voices. 

When  I  had  been  inside  the  principal  mill, 
and  had  seen  with  my  own  eyes  those  titanic 
processes,  had  watched  the  blazing  white  metal 
pouring  from  the  Bessemer  converters,  had 
looked  through  smoked  glasses  into  the  boiling 
hell  of  the  open  hearth  furnaces,  had  seen  the 
steel  ingot  lifted  by  iron  fingers  from  the  heating 
ovens  and  rolled  with  easy  power  into  steel- 
rails — when  I  saw  all  this,  the  impression  of 
dominance  was  immeasurably  increased. 

As  I  saw  it  that  stormy  December  day,  just 
at  dusk,  it  seemed  a  kind  of  titan,  dwarfing  all 
the  human  life  around  and  within  it.  So  few 
men  were  to  be  seen,  or  they  were  so  insignifi- 
cant, so  dim,  compared  with  the  stupendous 
machinery,  that  one  barely  noticed  them.  The 
mechanism  appeared,  somehow,  to  be  operating 
itself.  I  can  scarcely  describe  it:  but  there  it 
was,  a  kind  of  monster  squatting  on  the  shore 
of  the  grey  lake.  A  tireless  monster  that  never 
sleeps !  Regardless  of  disputatious  workers,  and 
capitalists,  and  economists  and  politicians,  it 
toils  day  and  night,  summer  and  winter,  Sun- 
days, Christmas,  the  Fourth  of  July.  Its  appe- 
tite is  unappeasable.  Thousands  of  men,  dig- 


ging  for  their  lives  in  the  iron-ranges  of  Minne- 
sota and  thousands  more  in  the  coal-fields  and 
quarries  of  Indiana  and  Illinois  can  scarcely 
keep  it  satisfied.  It  drinks  the  entire  flow  of 
a  river.  It  requires  10,000  men  at  Gary  alone, 
speaking  a  babel  of  twenty  languages,  to  serve 
the  intimate  daily  necessities  of  a  single  mill. 

Each  time  I  visited  Gary  these  impressions 
deepened.  More  and  more  I  seemed  to  feel  the 
implacable  power  of  the  mechanism  there  at  the 
lake:  and,  in  comparison,  the  insignificance  of 
the  human  element  in  the  process.  One  evening, 
as  I  was  going  out  along  the  high  embankment 
from  which  one  can  glimpse  the  whole  enormous 
aggregations  of  flaming  chimneys  and  spread- 
ing mills,  it  came  to  me,  that,  in  its  essence,  man- 
kind was  facing  the  problem  as  to  whether 
machinery  should  dominate  men  or  men  ma- 
chinery. Were  men  to  be  merely  cogs  or 
servants  of  stupendous  insensate  mechanisms  or 
were  they  to  stand  out  as  masters,  using  easily 
and  freely  the  tools  they  had  built?  Was  the 
"  genius  of  mechanism,"  as  Carlyle  expressed 
it  long  ago,  to  sit  forever  "  like  an  incubus  upon 
the  soul  of  man,"  or  was  the  soul  of  man  to  free 
itself  and  command  the  genius  of  mechanism? 

I  think  many  an  observer,  visiting  these  great 
industrial  towns  will  have  the  same  question 
vividly  presented  to  him:  and  he  will  begin 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  129 

straightway  to  try,  with  all  his  power,  to  see 
whether  or  not  the  soul  of  man  is  really  domi- 
nated by  the  mechanism,  and  why  it  is — and  how 
it  can  come  free  and  triumphant  in  the  struggle. 
For  this  is  the  true  theme,  the  motif,  of  this  vast 
drama. 

Yet  the  more  I  looked  at  Gary,  and  its  mills 
and  its  men,  the  more  I  thought  about  them, 
the  more  amazing,  after  all,  it  seemed  that  these 
little  insects  of  human  beings  should  be  there 
at  all,  that  they  should  have  been  able,  somehow, 
to  create  such  a  stupendous  mechanism,  such  a 
titanic  iron  slave,  and  that  having  created  it 
they  should  be  able  to  command  for  its  service 
so  many  of  the  forces  of  nature — heat  and  cold, 
air  and  water,  electricity  and  gas — that  they 
should  know  where  to  find  all  of  the  varied  in- 
gredients and  bring  them  together  exactly  on 
time,  mix  them  accurately,  and  produce  finally 
such  an  outpouring  of  fashioned  steel. 

I  went  into  the  immense  room,  larger  than 
any  cathedral,  where  the  ingots  were  being 
rolled.  All  the  machinery  was  powerfully  at 
work — and  no  other  mechanism  created  by  men 
gives  a  sublimer  impression  of  resistless  power 
than  a  modern  rolling  mill — but  nowhere  at  first 
did  I  see  a  single  man.  Not  one  1  It  was  almost 
uncanny!  Presently  I  looked  up.  There,  in  a 
partly  glassed  cage  high  on  the  wall  sat  the 


130      THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

worker  among  his  levers  and  his  buttons:  the 
cerebellum  of  the  creature!  After  all,  it  was 
managed  by  men! 

A  moment  later  it  came  to  me  with  a  flash, 
exactly  what  the  trouble  was.  Yes,  men  actu- 
ally controlled  the  monster,  but  they  quarrelled 
with  another  about  it :  there  was  a  divided  spirit : 
there  was  no  common  purpose!  They  were 
crippling  the  willing  slave  of  them  all,  who  was 
toiling  to  give  them  bread  and  clothing  and 
shelter — and  whatever  of  books,  education  and 
culture  they  might  be  able  to  acquire.  There 
were  actually  soldiers  patrolling  the  streets  and 
guarding  the  mills  to  prevent  them  from  killing 
one  another,  or  from  injuring  the  monster. 
They  had  built  a  marvellous  machine — and  were 
threatening  to  break  it  up  because  they  could 
not  agree  about  managing  it! 

Nor  was  this  crippling  confined  merely  to 
times  of  open  strife.  If  that  were  all,  we  might 
speedily  find  a  remedy.  But  it  was  going  on 
all  the  time:  there  was  no  real  co-operation:  no 
true  unity  of  spirit.  A  scientist  in  manage- 
ment, Mr.  Gantt,  after  a  life-time  devoted  to  the 
study  of  industrial  plants,  gave  it  as  his  mature 
judgment  that  on  the  average  the  manufacturing 
capacity  of  this  country  was  not  more  than 
twenty-five  per  cent,  of  what  it  ought  to  be  if 
the  productive  machinery  were  properly  man- 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  131 

aged.  A  part  of  this  was  due  to  inefficiency  of 
tlu  management:  and  part  due  to  the  slack- 
ness and  want  of  interest  of  the  workers.  Think 
of  it!  A  slave  willing  to  do  four  times  as  much 
work  as  it  is  doing — but  crippled  by  confusion 
in  the  control! 

Some  other  extraordinary  features  of  this 
situation  at  Gary  flew  to  my  mind.  In  the  back- 
streets  of  the  town,  unhappy  groups  of  the  most 
ignorant  of  the  workers  were  meeting — men  who 
cannot  speak  English — men  that  no  one  pays 
any  attention  to  so  long  as  they  come  to  work 
every  day.  No  mill  in  the  country  has  a  higher 
reputation  for  neatness  and  good  order  than 
the  great  mill  at  Gary.  Gleason,  the  superin- 
tendent there,  hates  dirt,  waste,  rubbish,  and  will 
not  abide  them.  He  thinks  them  unsightly  and 
dangerous!  And  yet  they  leave  this  human 
wastage  neglected  in  dark  corners  of  the  town 
and  wonder  that  it  flames  up  in  spontaneous 
combustion. 

Well,  these  ignorant  foreigners — they  have 
never,  for  the  most  part,  been  organized  in 
unions  at  all, — hold  their  meetings.  They  feel 
that  something  is  wrong  in  the  mills.  It  is  in 
the  very  atmosphere.  Some  of  them,  perhaps, 
have  read  pamphlets  dealing  with  European 
revolutionary  movements.  Everything  is  there 
so  clearly  explained.  Nothing  is  more  beguiling 


132      THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

to  ignorant  men  than  a  patent  remedy,  whether 
for  body  or  mind.  They  want  a  quick  cure,  and 
take  it  instantly.  In  the  early  days  of  the  strike 
some  of  these  men  quite  frankly  advocated  the 
immediate  seizure  of  the  mills  by  themselves — 
the  workers! 

No  one  has  explained  anything  to  them,  or 
tried  to:  no  one,  so  far  as  they  know,  has  tried 
to  remedy  the  conditions  under  which  they  feel 
that  they  suffer. 

Nine  hundred  miles  away  from  all  this  in  New 
York  sit  the  commanding  men  of  the  steel 
industry.  They  have  given  the  workers  of  the 
town  much  good  housing,  and  cheap,  they  have 
provided  safety  appliances  at  the  mills — really 
in  a  wonderful  way — they  have  instituted  a 
pension  fund,  and  they  invite  the  workers  to 
invest  their  savings  in  the  stock  of  the  corpora- 
tion on  a  helpful  and  generous  basis. 

"  See  what  we  are  doing  for  them! "  they  tell 
us. 

It  seems  like  black  ingratitude  that  workers, 
after  all  this,  should  strike!  Twenty-five  year? 
ago  I  saw  men  and  women  hungry  in  the  model 
homes  of  the  town  of  Pullman  during  the  great 
strike  there.  Mr.  Pullman  had  done  everything 
(he  thought)  for  his  workers:  and  he  mourned 
like  some  Lear  over  the  tragedy  of  their  in- 
gratitude. 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  133 

Well,  those  things  do  not  prevent  strikes,  and 
never  have;  and  never  will,  for  they  do  not 
touch  the  heart  of  the  trouble. 

I  puzzled  a  long  time  at  Gary,  how  best  to 
describe  the  real  trouble — how  to  express  it. 
I  am  not  presumptuous  enough  to  imagine  I  can 
explain  it  all,  but  one  thing,  at  least,  I  think  I 
see  clearly.  In  the  earlier  part  of  this  chapter, 
speaking  of  the  self-delineated  portrait  of  in- 
dustry as  it  is  to  be  seen  at  Gary,  I  referred  to 
a  certain  strange  aspect  of  the  eyes.  I  know 
now:  and  feel  like  whispering  the  truth.  Blind! 
No  vision — or  clouded  vision.  They  do  not  see 
what  the  real  struggle  is:  they  do  not  unite  to 
meet  it. 

For  a  little  while  last  year — that  wonderful 
year  when  our  soldiers  were  in  France — Ameri- 
can industry  opened  its  eyes:  looked  up!  Both 
sides  nearly  forgot  they  were  working  for 
money :  they  forgot  long  hours :  they  even  forgot 
profits  (some  of  them!) ;  they  forgot  to  quarrel; 
they  were  united.  Fdr  once  they  made  the 
monster-slave  of  mechanism  sweat  at  his  task. 
For  they  had  a  vision  of  ships  plying  the 
Atlantic  loaded  with  American  soldiers,  of  a 
railroad  across  France,  of  guns  for  our 
brigades  to  fight  with.  How  they  all  worked 
and  produced  for  that  clear  purpose!  The 
eyes  of  the  whole  world  watched  with  admira- 


134      THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

tion  how  we  turned  out  ships  and  cars  and 
rifles. 

All  that  has  gone  now.  We  had  a  glimpse 
of  a  better  way,  we  tried  uniting  to  depose  the 
genius  of  mechanism  which  sits  upon  our  souls, 
tried  working  together  for  a  high  purpose,  we 
achieved  miracles — and  are  back  again  groping 
in  the  old  murkiness,  quarrelling  with  one  an- 
other, and  crippling  the  giant  that  feeds  us.  We 
could  unite,  and  produce,  and  sacrifice,  to  pro- 
tect the  nation  from  a  danger  from  without:  we 
seem  to  have  no  appreciation  of  the  danger 
within,  no  vision  of  the  task  of  meeting  it !  And 
where  there  is  no  vision  the  people  perish. 

Not  long  ago  I  read  in  an  account  of  a  re- 
cently discovered  manuscript  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment a  remark  of  the  Master  to  a  shoemaker 
at  work: 

"  Man,  if  thou  knowest  what  thou  dost,  blessed 
are  thou,  but  if  thou  knowest  not,  thou  art  con- 
demned." 

It  is  a  very  wonderful  place — Gary — an  ex- 
traordinary demonstration  of  the  sheer  genius 
and  energy  of  human  beings,  but  one  wonders, 
having  been  there,  having  seen  the  crippled  mills, 
the  dissatisfied  workers,  the  irritated  manage- 
ment, the  fearful  losses  in  production,  wages, 
profits,  the  soldiers  patrolling  the  streets  with 
charged  arms,  and  groups  of  revolutionaries 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  135 

plotting  disturbances,  and  groups  of  officials 
planning  suppressions — one  wonders  if  those 
who  manage  and  those  who  work  at  Gary  do  not 
warrant  the  condemnation  of  not  knowing  what 
they  are  about. 

And  yet  having  said  this  of  Gary,  I  have  said 
too  much  for  industry  in  general,  for  there  is  a 
new  vision  coming  in  industry;  new  leaders  are 
at  work;  new  experimentation  is  going  on.  In- 
dustry in  some  of  its  branches  is  rinding  its  soul 
— as  I  shall  show  in  coming  chapters. 


CHAPTER  XII 

WELFARE  WORK  AS  A  SOLUTION  OF  THE  PROB- 
LEM AND  How  IT  is  REGARDED  BY  BOTH 
EMPLOYERS  AND  WORKERS 

IF  one  would  bore  into  the  very  kernel  of  the 
present  industrial  unrest,  let  him  examine 
the  significant  modern  development  of  wel- 
fare work  in  American  mills  and  factories.  For 
here,  at  once,  we  encounter  an  extraordinary 
difference  of  view  between  certain  leaders  among 
the  employers  and  certain  leaders  among  the 
workers.  In  the  Senate  investigation  of  the 
steel  strike,  for  example,  Judge  Gary  gave  no 
part  of  his  testimony  greater  importance,  nor 
spoke  with  more  sincere  enthusiasm,  of  any 
aspect  of  the  work  of  the  United  States  Steel 
Corporation,  than  of  the  extensive  welfare 
work  now  in  operation  in  the  various  mills  and 
towns — pensions,  stock-ownership,  sanitation,  ac- 
cident preventions,  schools,  churches,  clubs,  play- 
grounds and  the  like.  He  gave  at  length  the 
numbers  of  restaurants,  swimming-pools,  athletic 
fields,  bandstands,  sanitary  drinking  fountains, 
water-closet  bowls,  clothes  lockers,  and  so  on, 
provided  by  the  corporation  for  the  benefit  of 

136 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  137 

its  army  of  268,000  workers.  He  showed  that 
in  1918  over  $17,000,000  was  expended  for  these 
purposes,  and  in  1917  over  $10,000,000. 

He  said :  "  The  amount  we  have  expended  for 
the  benefit  of  our  employees  is  extraordinary  as 
compared  with  anything  that  has  ever  been  done 
before,  so  far  as  I  know,  anywhere  or  during 
any  period." 

This  is  absolutely  the  truth;  no  individual  or 
corporation  ever  equalled  Judge  Gary's  great 
company  in  the  extent  or  cost  of  its  welfare 
work.  There  is,  therefore,  no  better  example 
of  the  system  to  study;  nowhere  is  the  demon- 
stration more  complete. 

Nor  is  there  any  doubt  that  Judge  Gary  looks 
upon  the  system  with  sincere  faith  and  satisfac- 
tion, for  he  said  to  a  meeting  of  the  presidents 
of  his  subsidiary  corporations  (in  January, 
1919). 

"  All  of  us  experience  more  or  less  a  thrill 
of  pride  in  hearing  from  government  officials 
that  our  reputation  for  considering  and  promot- 
ing the  welfare  of  our  employees  is  the  best  in 
the  entire  industry." 

He  is  right — it  really  is. 

How,  then,  are  we  to  interpret  the  bitter  and 
cynical  references  to  this  work  by  many  labour 
leaders;  how  explain — if  it  can  be  explained — 
Mr.  Gompers'  contemptuous  term  for  it?  He 


138      THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

called  it — before  the  Senate  Committee—  "  hell- 
fare  "  work.  If  this  is  the  word  of  the  most  con- 
servative labour  leader  in  America,  it  can  be 
imagined  what  must  be  the  feeling  of  more 
radical  leaders. 

Are  not  all  these  things — these  comforts,  these 
aids  to  health  and  pleasure,  these  incentives  to 
thrift — are  they  not  all  good?  Why,  then, 
should  they  be  so  bitterly  resented  by  the  laboiir 
leaders? 

Before  trying  to  explain  this  extraordinary 
difference  of  view,  I  wish  to  present  a  few  more 
facts  about  the  work  Judge  Gary  has  done; 
for  it  is  in  many  ways  very  wonderful. 

The  phrase,  "  Safety  First,"  which  has  now 
spread  over  the  world,  originated  under  Mr. 
Buffington  in  one  of  the  plants  of  the  Illinois 
Steel  Company  at  Chicago.  It  represented  the 
beginning  of  a  powerful  effort,  in  which  the 
Steel  Corporation  has  led  the  entire  country, 
to  introduce  safety  devices,  to  eliminate  acci- 
dents. No  industry  is  more  dangerous  to  life 
and  limb  than  the  steel  industry  and  in  none  has 
the  "  Safety  First "  movement  made  greater 
progress.  Competitions  have  been  set  up  be- 
tween mill  and  mill  and  department  and  de- 
partment and  at  Gary  I  saw  huge,  electric- 
lighted  bulletin  boards  like  baseball  scores — 
bearing  the  records  of  various  groups  of  workers 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  139 

in  preventing  accidents:  and  everywhere  about 
were  signs  of  warning. 

"Danger  Here." 

"  Think." 

"  Our  Motto:  Safety  and  Cleanliness." 

"  No  Smoking,  Matches  or  Open  Lights." 

They  have  accident  specialists — veritable 
safety  "  cranks  "  —who  do  nothing  else  but  study 
safety  improvements  and  train  the  men  to  watch 
for  danger.  Last  year  (1918)  they  spent  over 
$1,000,000  in  this  work  of  accident  prevention. 
Between  1906  and  1912  the  number  of  serious 
and  fatal  accidents  in  all  the  plants  of  the 
corporation  were  reduced  by  forty-three  per 
cent.  They  also  have  a  fund  for  relieving  men 
and  families  of  men  injured  or  killed  in  the' 
mills,  upon  which  they  expended  in  1918 
$3,336,000. 

They  have  a  pension  fund  started  by  Andrew 
Carnegie  in  1901  for  superannuated  or  disabled 
workers.  Over  2,900  men  are  now  so  pensioned, 
receiving  an  average  of  about  $22  a  month. 
This  cost  in  1918,  $709,000. 

But  the  feature  of  the  entire  plan  upon  which 
Judge  Gary  lays  most  stress  is  the  effort  to 
encourage  stock-ownership  in  the  corporation 
among  the  workers.  Arrangements  are  made  to 
sell  shares  at  a  little  below  market  price  to  all 
classes  of  employees,  give  them  a  long  time  to 


140      THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

make  payments,  and  finally,  if  they  hold  their 
stock  continuously  for  five  years  to  pay  them  a 
bonus  of  $5  a  share  per  year  for  each  share 
they  hold.  On  September  1,  1919,  there  were 
61,328  employees  out  of  a  total  of  268,000  who 
owned  158,061  shares  in  the  corporation  upon 
this  basis.  This  is,  of  course,  a  very/small  frac- 
tion of  the  total  stock-issue  of  the  great  corpora- 
tion— about  one  fifty-fourth — not  enough,  nat- 
urally, to  influence  the  action  of  the  directors 
in  any  way.  It  represents  an  average  saving  of 
all  employees  of  about  $60  each — if  the  value  of 
the  stock  is  counted  at  par. 

The  corporation  has  also  built  many  houses 
for  its  employees  (though  far  from  enough) 
which  it  rents  aerates  generally  lower  than  those 
prevailing  among  private  owners,  or  has  sold  the 
homes,  as  at  Gary,  on  long  time  at  low  pay- 
ments. It  also  contributes  liberally  to  all 
churches,  many  schools,  libraries  and  the  like. 
Judge  Gary  personally  presented  a  large  sum 
of  money  for  erecting  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  building 
in  the  city  of  Gary:  and  Andrew  Carnegie  built 
the  fine  library. 

Why  should  the  workers  call  this  "  hell-fare  " 
work?  If  we  are  really  to  understand  the 
length  and  breadth  and  depth  of  this  problem 
we  must  understand  exactly  how  these  things 
look  and  feel  from  below.  As  I  have  said 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  141 

before,  it  is  not  what  the  employer  thinks  the 
worker  ought  to  feel  that  matters,  but  what  the 
worker  really  does  feel. 

I  have  talked  with  many  leaders  and  many 
workers  upon  this  subject  and  endeavoured  to 
get  at  their  exact  point  of  view.  M.  F.  Tighe, 
President  of  the  Amalgamated  Association  of 
Iron,  Steel  and  Tin  Workers  of  America,  one 
of  the  leaders  concerned  in  the  recent  steel  strike, 
set  forth  some  of  the  objections  to  welfare  work 
in  his  testimony  before  the  Senate  Committee. 

'  The  paternal  features  of  the  industry,"  he 
said,  "  that  have  been  so  very  fluently  expounded 
by  the  corporate  interests,  are  nothing  more  or 
less  than  a  hog-chain  shackling  the  employees, 
putting  them  in  the  position  that  they  dare  not, 
at  any  time,  assert  those  inalienable  rights  the 
American  citizen  is  supposed  to  have — because, 
once  he  becomes  the  owner  of  that  property,  he 
must  be  employed  in  that  plant,  he  must  be  sub- 
missive to  any  conditions  that  management  may 
undertake  to  put  upon  him — for  if  he  loses  his 
position  what  value  is  placed  upon  his  prop- 
erty?" 

As  to  the  bonus  system,  Mr.  Tighe  also  says : 

"  We  are  opposed  to  that.  We  believe  a 
man  should  be  paid  for  the  actual  labour  he  does 
and  that  pay  should  be  put  in  his  envelope  on 
every  pay-day  and  not  be  left  to  the  discretion 


142      THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

of  a  so-called  philanthropic  employer  at  the  end 
of  a  certain  period." 

The  Chairman:  Your  position  is  that  you  do 
not  ask  for  gifts? 

Mr.  Tighe:  Yes:  that  is  our  position  exactly. 

The  Chairman:  You  ask  for  justice  not  gifts? 

Mr.  Tighe:  Yes. 

I  got  the  point  of  view  of  one  of  the  workers 
at  Gary  regarding  the  stock-ownership  plan. 
He  himself  held  two  shares  of  the  stock. 

"  Every  share  of  stock,"  he  said,  "  has  a  string 
attached  to  it.  In  order  to  win  the  bonus  we 
must  stay  five  years  in  the  employ  of  the  com- 
pany: and  even  then  the  bonus  is  distributed 
under  the  rules  only  to  those  who  in  the  judg- 
ment of  the  management  *  have  shown  a  proper 
interest '  in  the  welfare  of  the  company.  If  he 
leaves  the  employ  of  the  company  for  any  reason 
— say  he  strikes — he  loses  the  entire  bonus.  You 
see  what  cowards  that  tends  to  make  of  men  who 
have  a  small  stake  in  the  company — and  what 
power  it  puts  in  the  hands  of  the  company.  It 
tends  to  make  men  afraid  to  organize  or  protest 
against  abuses,  lest  they  be  accused  of  not  being 
loyal.  In  the  same  way  a  pension  system  which 
is  regulated  according  to  the  recommendations 
of  foremen  and  superintendents  is  a  way  of 
shackling  many  older  employees.  Then,  a  cer- 
tain number  of  men  are  tied  up  with  houses 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  143 

they  have  bought  from  the  company  on  long 
time :  for  they  know  that  unless  they  are  *  loyal ' 
and  '  good  '  they  may  lose  their  jobs  and  have  to 
sacrifice  their  property — for  in  most  mill  towns, 
if  a  man  is  discharged,  he  must  move  elsewhere." 

Mr.  Gompers  said  to  the  Senate  Committee: 

'  What  the  workers  want  is  less  charity  and 
better  wages  and  labouring  conditions.  The 
direct  purpose  of  this  welfare  work  is  to  alien- 
ate and  prevent  the  workers  from  thinking  in 
terms  of  organization  for  self-protection  and 
mutual  welfare." 

In  its  essence  the  criticism  of  the  workers  is 
that  welfare  work  is  an  expression  of  benevo- 
lent autocracy,  while  they  are  struggling  for 
more  democracy;  that  it  breaks  up  any  unity  of 
action:  and  while  it  makes  life  pleasanter  for 
the  few,  it  often  consigns  the  great  mass  of 
workers  to  the  necessity  of  living  under  hard 
working  conditions.  In  the  recent  strike  many 
of  the  skilled  workers,  the  Americans,  were  thus 
tied  up  to  the  company  by  stock-ownership,  the 
purchase  of  homes  and  the  like,  so  that  any 
group  action  or  organization  among  the  workers 
was  robbed  of  its  natural  leadership.  Of  268,- 
000  workers  only  61,000  (and  this  includes  many 
foremen,  superintendents,  and  other  officials) 
were  stockholders. 

"  What  use  is  most  of  this  welfare  work,"  one 


144      THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

workman  asked  me  passionately,  "  when  we  are 
compelled  to  work  twelve  hours  a  day  and  seven 
days  a  week?  In  the  face  of  the  twelve-hour  day 
Carnegie  Libraries,  Y.  M.  C.  A.'s,  playgrounds, 
and  the  like  are  just  jokes." 

Another  workman  put  in: 

"  Judge  Gary  says  that  welfare  work  pays, 
and  pays  big,  in  dollars  and  cents.  If  that  is  so, 
why  should  he  take  credit  to  himself  for  doing 
it?  Of  course  it  pays,  because  it  helps  keep  the 
workers  separated  from  one  another,  prevents 
organization,  and  enables  the  company  to  main- 
tain its  long  work  day." 

Thus  the  very  argument  used  by  the  em- 
ployers to  prove  the  value  of  the  welfare  work, 
that  it  helped  prevent  labour  organization  and 
thus  broke  up  the  strike,  is  the  very  argument 
used  against  it  by  the  workers. 

Another  argument  frequently  heard  amorfg 
workers  is  this: 

"  Give  us  a  chance  to  organize  and  decent 
wages  and  we  will  do  our  own  welfare  work  and 
do  it  on  a  real  democratic  basis." 

Some  of  the  activities  of  labour  unionism 
along  these  lines  in  America  are  most  interest- 
ing. Several  strong  unions  in  Chicago  and  New 
York,  for  example,  have  their  own  educational 
directors  with  classes,  lecture  and  concert 
courses,  and  the  like.  Some  of  the  concerts 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  145 

given  by  the  clothing-workers — and  given  in 
union-owned  halls — are  of  the  very  best.  Other 
unions  have  extensive  benefit  and  insurance  sys- 
tems. In  his  testimony  before  the  Senate  Com- 
mittee, for  example,  Mr.  Gompers  compared  the 
pension  system  of  the  United  States  Steel  Cor- 
poration with  that  of  the  International  Typo- 
graphical Union  showing  that  the  latter  was 
maintaining  just  twice  as  many  pensioners,  in 
proportion  to  its  membership,  as  the  United 
States  Steel  Corporation:  and  that  these  pen- 
sions were  not  regulated  from  above,  but  were 
awarded  by  the  men  themselves. 

It  was  a  significant  thing,  at  Gary,  to  find 
that  no  work  was  spoken  of  by  both  company 
officials  and  workmen  with  more  sympathy  and 
approval  than  the  Good-Fellow  Clubs  and  the 
Joint  Committees  for  carrying  on  the  accident 
prevention  work.  Here,  through  a  tiny  crack, 
had  crept  in  a  little  democratic  relationship,  a 
little  co-operative  effort,  between  management 
and  men.  The  Good-Fellow  Clubs  are  instru- 
ments for  aiding  needy  workers  and  the  Joint 
Committees  in  the  accident  work  are  for  the 
purpose  of  building  up  public  opinion  among 
workmen  in  the  mills  in  the  matter  of  preventing 
accidents.  In  both  of  these  limited  activities 
committees  of  the  management  and  committees 
of  the  workers  are  really  acting  toegther — and 


146      THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

both  are  proud  of  it — and  proud  of  the  results 
of  it.  For  everything  depends  upon  the  spirit 
of  approach. 

"  If  this  method  works  so  well  in  these  small 
matters,"  I  asked  one  of  the  great  steel  men, 
"  why  will  it  not  work  just  as  well  in  dealing 
with  other  and  larger  questions — wages,  hours, 
living  conditions?" 

"Why  not?"  he  asked,  "but  we're  terribly 
slow  to  see  it." 

Yet  this  is  exactly  what  Rockefeller  saw — and 
introduced — in  his  Colorado  steel  plants.  It  is 
what  the  Midvale  Steel  Company  has  seen  and 
introduced  in  several  of  its  great  plants.  Many 
hundreds  of  manufacturing  establishments  in 
America  are  already  adopting  this  new  demo- 
cratic relationship  in  the  management  of  the 
labour  aspects  of  their  work.  These  really  re- 
markable experiments — all  so  new  that  they 
were  practically  unknown  before  the  war — I 
shall  explain  in  following  chapters. 

Five  stages  or  epochs  in  the  relationships  of 
labour  and  capital — since  large-scale  industry 
came  into  existence — are  clearly  distinguishable 
in  America. 

1.  The  purely  autocratic,  individualistic 
method.  The  employer  believes  that  he  can  "  do 
what  he  likes  with  his  own  property."  He 
"  hires  and  fires  "  to  suit  himself.  Sometimes 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  147 

when  the  plant  is  small  and  the  owner-manager 
is  close  to  his  men  and  can  preserve  a  close  hu- 
man relationship,  or  when  it  is  larger  and  he 
happens  to  be  a  great  personality,  this  method 
may  work  very  well — at  least  from  the  point  of 
view  of  the  employer.  But  when  ownership  be- 
comes separated  from  management,  as  is  so 
often  the  case  now  in  America,  or  the  plant 
grows  so  large  as  to  destroy  the  possibility  of 
close  personal  relationships  between  manage- 
ment and  men,  it  often  works  very  badly  indeed. 
It  is  this  destruction  of  real  contact  and  real 
understanding  between  employer  and  worker 
that  is  the  cause  to-day  of  much  of  the  prevail- 
ing unrest.  Especially  is  this  true  if  the  man- 
ager is  of  the  dominant,  driving  type.  "  Catch 
'em  young,  treat  'em  rough,  tell  'em  nothing," 
was  the  motto  of  one  steel-mill  manager  in  the 
i  recent  strike — and  some  employers  thought  it 
really  worked,  because  he  succeeded  in  keeping 
his  mill  in  operation  while  others  closed  down. 

2.  The  autocratic  method  tempered  by  wel- 
fare   work:    as    in    the    United    States    Steel 
Corporation.    Judge  Gary  is  an  absolute  auto- 
crat, but  he  is  a  benevolent  autocrat. 

3.  The  militaristic  method,  in  which  labour  is 
organized,   and   often   the   employers   as   well. 
Employers  and  employees  are  in  two  more  or 
less  hostile   camps:   they  have  frequent  wars 


148      THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

(strikes)  and  sign  frequent  truces  (collective 
bargains).  i  War  is  always  wasteful  and  mili- 
tary methods  inefficient,  and  always  the  non- 
combatant  (the  public)  is  the  chief  sufferer. 
Yet  this  is  the  method  (and  labour  has  had  in 
the  past  no  other  way  of  protecting  itself  or 
winning  its  rights)  under  which  a  large  propor- 
tion of  the  industries  of  America  are  now  con- 
ducted. Sometimes  a  little  real  co-operation 
is  attained  by  this  method:  usually  not. 

4.  The  new  co-operative  method  now  begin- 
ning to  have  a  wide  trial  in  America — -and  a 
still  wider  one  in  Great  Britain.     Here  shop 
committees  of  workmen   (whether  organized  in 
trade  unions  or  not)  and  the  management  seek 
to  co-operate,  rather  than  to  fight,  over  their 
mutual  problems. 

5.  A  step  beyond  this  we  have  at  least  one 
great  experiment — in  the  manufacture  of  men's 
clothing — in  establishing  a  government  for  one 
entire  industry  in  America:  a  government  based 
upon  co-operation  and  a  democratic  relationship 
between  management  and  men  throughout  the 
industry. 

These  new  schemes  are  not  the  mere  sugges- 
tions of  theorists  or  dreamers,  but  are  being 
practically  worked  out  by  practical  men,  both 
employers  and  employees,  as  I  shall  show  in 
following  chapters. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

THE  NEW  SHOP-COUNCIL  SYSTEM  AS  APPLIED 

IN    A    TYPICAL    SMALL    INDUSTRY — THE 

DUTCHESS    BLEACHERY    AT    WAP- 

PINGERS  FALLS,   NEW  YORK 

I  CAN  best  set  forth  the  new  method  of  co- 
operation between  employers  and  workers 
in  America — generally  called  the  "  shop- 
committee  "  system — by  telling  the  extraordi- 
narily interesting  story  of  what  has  happened 
in  one  small  industry  where  it  has  been  applied. 
Before  the  war  this  new  method  was  prac- 
tically unknown  either  in  America  or  elsewhere 
— although  there  were  several  pioneer  experi- 
ments in  progress — but  to-day  there  are  several 
hundred  industries — or  if  individual  plants  are 
counted,  many  thousands — varying  all  the  way 
from  huge  steel  plants  like  the  Colorado  Fuel 
and  Iron  Company  and  the  Midvale  Steel  Com- 
pany, to  little  factories  of  a  few  hundred  hands, 
where  the  new  plan  is  being  practically  tried  out. 
In  a  following  chapter  I  shall  present  a  general 
survey  of  the  present  state  and  promise  of  the 
entire  movement — for  the  experiments  vary 
widely  in  detail  and  still  more  widely  in  spirit — 

149 


150      THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

but  the  actual  living  operation  of  the  new 
method  can  best  be  understood  by  looking  at  its 
application  to  a  small  industry  in  a  small  town 
where  all  the  factors  are  plainly  visible. 

Wappingers  Falls  is  a  very  old  town,  as  towns 
go  in  America.  It  lies  back  from  the  Hudson 
River  a  few  miles  below  Poughkeepsie,  where 
a  fine  stream  comes  down  out  of  the  hills  to 
supply  power  for  its  mill.  In  earlier  days  before 
the  railroads  came,  its  only  communication  with 
New  York  was  by  way  of  Hudson  River  sloops 
which  in  summer  worked  in  through  the  narrow 
inlet,  or  in  winter  by  the  stage-coach  along  the 
river  road. 

Here  long  ago  a  bleachery  and  cotton  print- 
works was  established  (now  called  the  Dutchess 
Bleachery).  I  asked  a  bent  old  man  I  saw 
working  over  one  of  the  vats  how  long  he  had 
been  there. 

"  What's  that? " 

"  How  long  have  you  worked  here?  " 

"  Fifty-nine  years,"  he  said,  "  in  this  one 
place." 

So  it  was  long  ago.  It  was  like  many,  if  not 
most  such  plants  in  America.  It  had  its  Royal 
Family  that  owned  everything — mill,  houses, 
land — and  lived  little  there,  but  had  leisure  for 
education,  and  European  travel — opportunity 
written  large.  And  the  people  worked  long 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  151 

hours — as  long,  they  say,  as  fourteen — then 
twelve,  then  ten,  and  wages  were  low.  There 
was  never  any  incentive  upon  their  part  to  work 
hard,  or  improve  methods,  or  increase  produc- 
tion, because  no  surplus  of  their  common  toil 
ever  by  any  chance  reached  their  pockets,  for 
their  income  was  inexorably  set  by  the  iron  law 
of  supply  and  demand  in  the  wage-market.  On 
the  other  hand  they  did  help  bear  whatever 
losses  the  state  of  the  trade  or  the  inefficiency 
of  the  management  might  entail  upon  the  in- 
dustry— for  whenever  business  was  "  dull "  the 
mill  could  be  slackened  down  or  closed,  and  they 
thrown  out  of  employment.  Their  labour  was 
as  much  a  commodity  as  the  chlorate  of  lime 
they  used  in  bleaching  the  new  grey  cloth  or  the 
starch  in  stiffening  it. 

A  few  years  ago  the  mill  was  purchased  by  a 
new  company,  the  chief  "owners  of  which  were 
men  with  social  imagination.  They  were  among 
the  many  employers  in  America  who  are  be- 
ginning to  be  troubled  about  their  relationships 
to  their  business  and  to  their  workers. 

When  the  war  came  to  Wappingers  Falls 
there  was  that  sudden  lift  of  common  effort, 
common  enthusiasm,  which  for  a  moment  fired 
the  soul  of  America.  For  a  moment  we  forgot 
ourselves;  we  were  greater  than  ourselves. 
There  are  those  who  mourn  over  the  reaction, 


152      THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

and  the  present  wave  of  unrest,  but  nothing  can 
ever  rob  us  of  that  great  moment,  nor  wipe  out 
the  effect  of  it.  We  shall  never  go  back,  to  the 
ante-bellum  ways  or  times.  Whether  we  like 
it  or  not  we  are  entering  a  new  world. 

The  war  jogged  Wappingers  Falls,  as  it 
jogged  so  many  other  towns,  into  a  sudden  self- 
consciousness.  It  had,  for  once,  a  good  look  at 
itself.  Here  it  was,  a  rather  outwardly  attrac- 
tive town  of  some  3,500  people — with  com- 
fortable shady  streets  and  picturesque  hills  all 
about.  Most  of  the  people  lived  in  pleasant  but 
more  or  less  dilapidated  houses,  a  few  of  which 
were  miserably  built  of  sheet-iron,  roofs  and  all, 
as  cold  in  winter  as  they  were  hot  in  summer. 
There  was  one  big  Roman  Catholic  Church — 
for  a  majority  of  the  people  are  of  Irish  and 
Italian  origin — and  four  struggling,  competing 
Protestant  churches  most  of  them  without  vision 
or  leadership.  Its  schools  were  no  better,  nor 
worse,  perhaps,  than  those  in  other  mill  towns 
like  this — more  a  habit,  a  routine,  than  a  source 
of  power.  Its  politics  was  without  issues  or 
ideas:  had  degenerated  into  local  factional  strife 
for  trivial  authority  and  small  rewards.  Its 
saloons  were  the  saloons  of  any  small  manu- 
facturing town,  and  the  less  said  of  them  the 
better.  As  for  the  mill  in  which  all  the  people 
worked,  for  which  the  town  existed,  it  was  owned 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  153 

almost  exclusively  (its  capital  is  $1,350,000) 
by  people  who  did  not  live  in  Wappingers  Falls 
and  never  had. 

Not  an  especially  pleasant  portrait,  you  say: 
and  yet  this  town  was  probably  better  than  the 
average  of  mill  towns  in  America.  It  might  be 
called  A  Portrait  of  an  American  Town  at  the 
Beginning  of  the  Twentieth  Century.  There 
was  not  enough  emotion  below  the  surface  to 
make  its  aspect  tragic — there  was  only  blank- 
ness,  dulness,  uncreativeness — boredom! 

In  the  summer  of  1917  a  young  minister 
named  James  Myers  went  to  Wappingers  Falls. 
He  was  sent  by  the  owners  of  the  company 
to  see  what  he  could  do  to  change  the  conditions. 
When  the  new  company  had  taken  the  property 
it  had  been  much  run  down  physically ;  they  had 
built  it  up,  got  it  on  a  profitable  basis,  and 
they  wanted  now  to  attack  the  problem  of  a 
new  relationship  with  the  personnel. 

Mr.  Hatch,  the  treasurer  of  the  company,  had 
been  for  some  time  interested  in  experiments  in 
"  industrial  democracy,"  and  had  begun  the 
introduction  of  the  new  system  in  a  mill  in  which 
he  was  interested  in  Abbeville,  S.  C.  He 
wanted  to  try  out  something  of  the  same  sort 
in  Wappingers  Falls.  He  had  only  two  general 
ideas  regarding  the  method  of  going  about  it — 
both  fundamental ;  one  was  to  go  slow,  not  make 


154      THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

changes  too  abruptly,  the  other  was  to  be  honest 
with  the  workers  at  every  step:  that  is,  not  to 
give  them  something  that  looked  like  a  "  new 
deal,"  merely  as  a  screen  for  a  closer  riveting 
upon  them  of  the  old  system — or  to  prevent 
unionism.  , 

A  meeting  of  the  500  operatives  was  called 
and  the  new  representative  plan  was  explained 
to  them  and  they  elected  by  secret  ballot  six 
representatives  (afterwards  eleven)  from  the 
various  departments.  These  were  organized 
into  a  Board  of  Operatives  and  James  Myers 
was  chosen  executive  secretary,  his  salary  being 
paid  by  the  company.  It  is  to  his  enthusiasm, 
vision,  and  organizing  ability  that  the  plan  owes 
much  of  its  success. 

There  was  one  small  labour  union  of  skilled 
men  in  the  mill  and  they  joined  in  the  enterprise 
and  elected  their  president,  Mr.  Bennett,  to  the 
Board  where  his  experience  as  a  union  leader 
was  of  great  value.  The  Board,  at  the  beginning, 
was  given  three  groups  of  powers: 

1.  To  solve  the  problem  of  housing.     The 
company  houses  were  out  of  repair  and  there 
was  constant  complaint.    The  company  agreed 
to  give  the  Board  of  Operatives  entire  charge 
of  these  houses  and  to  supply  the  money  for  all 
repairs  they  should  recommend. 

2.  To  take  up  the  matter  of  education  and 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  155 

recreation  in  the  community  and  especially  the 
matter  of  a  club-house  to  take  the  place  of  the 
saloons  when  they  should  be  closed. 

3.  The  Board  was  also  empowered  to  suggest 
methods  of  improvement  to  the  management  in 
other  matters — living  conditions,  wages  and  the 
like,  but  it  was  without  power  to  enforce  its 
recommendations. 

A  survey  of  housing  conditions  was  immedi- 
ately begun :  and  the  practical  knowledge  of  the 
operatives  on  the  Board  was  at  once  apparent 
—and  also  their  desire  to  maintain  a  businesslike 
attitude  toward  the  problem.  That  is,  they  held 
that  the  houses  ought  to  return  a  fair  interest 
on  the  capital  invested.  At  once  a  great  trans- 
formation began  to  take  place  in  the  village: 
reconstruction  of  old  houses,  new  paint,  new 
conveniences:  and  even  the  removal  of  several 
antiquated  tenements.  All  this  was  entirely 
managed  by  the  Board  of  Operatives  but  paid 
for  by  the  company.  The  Board  also  established 
a  fine  baseball  and  athletic  field  in  a  natural 
amphitheatre,  and  a  playground  for  the  children, 
and  by  winter  they  had  taken  possession  of  one 
of  the  old  saloon  buildings  and  changed  it  into 
a  well-equipped  village  club-house  which  is,  to- 
day, one  of  the  most  popular  places  in  town — 
a  centre  of  its  life.  They  also  began  the  publica- 
tion of  a  monthly  paper  called  Bleachery  Life 


156      THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

— dealing  not  only  with  the  new  plans  but  with 
all  sides  of  mill  life,  including  certain  news 
printed  in  Italian  for  Italian  workers.  This  has 
been  a  real  agency  in  awakening  mutual  inter- 
est. Plans  have  now  been  made  for  selling  all 
company  houses  to  workers  at  low  prices  with 
deferred  payments:  and  a  savings  system  has 
been  instituted. 

The  officials  of  the  company  kept  in  close  con- 
tact with  these  developments.  In  November, 
1918,  they  were  ready  to  lay  the  foundations  for 
the  next  step.  Mr.  Hatch  addressed  a  mass- 
meeting  of  the  workers  and  outlined  the  broader 
aspects  of  his  new  plan  which  he  called  a  part- 
nership between  workers,  management,  and 
capital. 

In  a  partnership  each  partner,  he  explained, 
shares  the  responsibility  of  management  by  tak- 
ing charge  of  the  business  he  is  best  qualified  to 
handle:  partners  are  also  entitled  to  know  the 
general  results  of  their  joint  efforts  and  he  said 
that  in  future  the  Board  of  Operatives  would 
receive  the  report  of  the  net  earnings  of  the 
company  just  as  did  the  Board  of  Directors; 
and,  finally,  partners  share  in  the  final  net 
profits  of  the  company,  and  he  outlined  a  new 
plan  of  profit-sharing  between  the  owners  and 
the  workers  which  I  shall  describe  later. 

Finally  he  summed  up  his  attitude  toward  the 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  157 

whole  problem  in  words  which  merit  careful 
reading  as  a  fine  expression  of  the  new  point  of 
view: 

Why  am  I  not  satisfied  with  the  system  of  paying  wages 
as  determined  by  supply  and  demand,  i.e.,  with  paying  the 
market  price  for  labour  and  making  as  large  profits  for  the 
company  as  market  conditions  will  permit?  Because  I  am 
convinced  that  this  system  has  been  weighed  in  the  scales 
of  human  experience  and  found  wanting.  It  treats  every 
employee  as  a  means  to  an  end,  the  end  being  the  enrich- 
ment of  the  employer,  whereas  every  man,  every  woman, 
and  every  child  is  an  end  in  himself  or  herself,  the  most 
valuable  creations  in  the  universe.  To  phrase  it  differently : 
Because  this  system  has  on  the  one  hand  resulted  in  poverty 
for  many  in  this  glorious  land  of  plenty,  and  on  the  other 
causing,  as  it  does,  the  concentration  of  great  wealth  in  the 
hands  of  a  few,  has  enshrined  the  pursuit  of  material 
wealth  as  the  dominant  life  motive  of  men. 

This  was  a  general  outline  of  principles:  as 
yet  there  was  no  real  machinery  for  working 
them  out.  But  such  machinery  cannot  be 
created  out  of  hand :  it  has  to  develop  out  of  the 
needs  of  the  situation.  As  the  Board  of  Opera- 
tives broadened  its  scope  of  activity  it  came 
again  and  again  into  contact  with  the  deeper 
problems  of  the  mill  itself:  wages,  hours  and 
real  co-operative  control.  As  yet  it  could  only 
make  suggestions  to  the  management:  but  by 
May,  1919,  it  was  ready  to  ask  for  more  power. 
The  Board  explained  to  the  company  that  "  the 


158      THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

apathy  and  lack  of  interest  with  which  the  em- 
ployees view  the  Board  of  Operatives  "  were  due 
to  the  fact  that  its  powers  did  not  affect  directly 
those  "  things  in  which  many  employees  are 
most  vitally  interested — matters  within  the  mill, 
question  of  hours,  wages  and  the  various  condi- 
tions by  which  they  are  surrounded  in  their 
daily  work."  In  response  to  suggestions  from 
the  management,  which  was  already  considering 
the  reduction  of  the  hours  of  labour  in.  the 
plant,  they  also  asked  for  a  forty-eight-hour 
week  instead  of  the  prevailing  fifty-five-hour 
week  and  for  an  increase  of  wages  by  fifteen 
per  cent.  At  the  same  time  the  Board  of 
Operatives  now  felt  enough  of  the  new  spirit  of 
co-operation  and  partnership  not  to  stop  merely 
with  a  demand  for  better  wages  and  shorter 
hours  for  the  workers,  but  they  offered  to  do 
their  part  in  keeping  up  production.  They  ex- 
pressed their  determination  to  produce  as  much 
in  eight  hours  as  formerly  in  ten,  and  actually 
suggested  the  installation  of  time-clocks  to  keep 
a  record  of  all  employees.  Their  resolutions  are 
well  worth  considering: 

While  feeling  its  responsibility  in  making  these  sugges- 
tions (about  decreasing  hours  and  increasing  wages),  the 
Board  of  Operatives  believes  that  in  addition  to  the  saving 
which  will  be  affected  in  power  and  light,  the  plant  can 
be  so  managed,  and  its  efficiency  so  improved  in  other  ways, 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  159 

as  to  result  in  turning  out  practically  the  same  production 
in  48  hours  as  it  turns  out  at  present  in  55  hours.  To 
this  end  the  Board  of  Operatives  wishes  specifically  to 
recommend  the  following  methods  of  increasing  efficiency: 

That  time-clocks  be  installed,  covering  all  operatives. 

That  a  regular  monthly  foremen's  conference  be  held  for 
mutual  discussion  with  the  agent,  of  the  problems  of  mill 
management,  in  order  to  harmonize  the  working  of  the 
various  departments  of  the  plant  with  each  other;  to  im- 
prove working  conditions  which  may  effect  plant  efficiency; 
to  promote  the  spirit  of  co-operation  among  all  departments, 
and  with  the  management,  and  to  increase  the  efficiency  and 
production  of  the  entire  plant. 

That  a  mass  meeting  of  all  employees  be  called  and  full 
explanations  made  in  regard  to  the  importance  of  co-opera- 
tion on  the  part  of  every  one  in  order  that  production  may 
be  kept  up  and  no  loss  sustained  by  us  all  as  partners, 
on  account  of  reduction  of  hours. 

The  next  step  was  a  long  one.  The  company 
decided  to  establish  a  Board  of  Management, 
consisting  of  three  members  representing  the 
employer's  side  (the  Manager  of  the  mill,  the 
New  York  agent,  and  the  Treasurer  of  the  com- 
pany— Mr.  Hatch)  and  three  members  chosen 
by  the  Board  of  Operatives,  Mr.  Aurswald, 
Mr.  Beasley  and  Mr.  Clark.  This  Board  was 
given  absolute  power  "  to  settle  and  adjust  such 
matters  of  mill  management  as  may  arise  " — 
practically  complete  control  of  the  mill.  In 
case  of  a  deadlock  between  the  two  groups  over 
any  question,  they  are  empowered  to  elect  a 


160       THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

seventh  arbitrating  member  whose  deciding  vote 
shall  be  final.  This  Board  went  into  control 
in  August,  1919. 

A  profit-sharing  system  was  adopted  on  these 
terms :  After  all  expenses  are  paid,  including 
six  per  cent  interest  on  capital,  the  net  profits, 
whatever  they  may  be,  are  divided,  half  and 
half,  between  the  stockholders  and  the  workers. 
Mr.  Hess,  the  Agent  (Manager)  of  the  mill 
has  introduced  a  very  complete  cost-accounting 
system,  so  that  net  profits  can  be  known  monthly 
and  dividends  are  therefore  now  declared 
monthly.  The  first  dividend  to  the  wage- 
workers  was  paid  last  August  and  represented 
four  per  cent  upon  wages  earned  in  the  previous 
six  months. 

No  sooner,  however,  is  any  profit-sharing  plan 
discussed  than  the  problem  arises  as  to  what 
will  happen  when  losses  come.  The  company 
has  met  this  problem  by  establishing  two  sink- 
ing funds  to  be  built  up  out  of  profits  until 
each  reaches  $250,000:  one  to  pay  half  wages 
to  workers  if  the  mill  is  forced  to  close  down, 
the  other  to  maintain  regular  interest  on  capital. 

These  new  responsibilities,  coupled  with  the 
new  opportunities  for  a  real  share  in  any  in- 
creased effort  has  awakened  a  wholly  new  spirit 
in  the  mill.  There  is  a  reason  now  for  "  getting 
busy,"  for  pushing  up  production.  Instead  of 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  161 

opposing  the  introduction  of  efficiency  schemes 
in  the  plant — as  workmen  so  often  do — they 
welcome  them.  For  more  production,  more 
efficient  work,  means  more  profits — and  half  of 
all  profits  go  to  them. 

I  want  to  give  one  example  of  this.  Last 
winter  the  New  York  office  "  came  back  "  at  the 
Board  of  Operatives  at  the  mill  because  of 
damage  to  one  large  shipment  of  cloth  through 
"  pin-cuts."  It  had  cost  the  company  $6,000. 
In  former  times  this  loss  would  have  been 
"  swallowed  "  and  not  much  said:  perhaps  some 
employee  "  fired "  if  the  guilty  one  could  be 
found.  Here  is  the  way  the  New  York  office 
expresses  its  feelings  to  the  operatives  at  the 
mill: 

Let's  just  for  the  fun  of  the  thing  figure  this  out  for 
each  of  us.  Increased  expenses  mean  decreased  profits, 
and  in  this  instance  our  decrease  in  profits  amounts  to 
about  $6,000,  less  what  we  can  get  for  the  salvage.  Under 
our  partnership  agreement  the  stockholders  stand  half,  or 
$3,000,  and  the  other  $3,000  is  at  the  expense  of  the  opera- 
tives. You  all  can  easily  figure  out  for  yourselves  just 
about  what  your  individual  share  of  this  is,  and  can  ask 
yourselves  if  you  got  your  money's  worth.  We  are  sure 
the  stockholders  did  not.  We  haven't  written  you  a  letter 
for  some  time,  but  this  subject  sure  did  drag  us  out  of 
our  shell. 

It  was  no  trouble  for  the  500  operatives  at 
the  mill  to  calculate  what  that  piece  of  careless- 


162      THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

ness  cost,  on  an  average,  each  of  them.  It  was 
$6.  It  went  through  the  mill  like  a  shock  and  it 
was  known  just  how  and  where  the  damage 
occurred.  It  can  be  seen  what  the  public  opinion 
of  the  mill  would  be  toward  those  workers  who 
had  been  so  careless  as  to  reduce  by  $6  the 
profits  of  every  employee  in  the  mill. 

Another  thing  the  Board  of  Operatives  has 
done  is  to  offer  prizes  for  suggestions  from 
workers — in  order  to  get  the  minds  of  every  one 
to  working  upon  the  common  problems  of  the 
shop.  This  has  already  resulted  in  a  number  of 
improvements.  At  the  payment  of  each  month's 
dividend  also,  Mr.  Hess  proposes  to  hold  a  mass- 
meeting  and  go  over  all  the  affairs  of  the  mill 
and  show  the  workers  where  they  can  improve 
processes,  cut  corners,  save  money.  With  both 
managers  and  men  working  at  improvement  of 
methods,  something  is  bound  to  happen  at  Wap- 
pingers  Falls! 

But  this  is  not  all.  The  company  has  now 
gone  still  a  step  further  upon  the  road  to  "  in- 
dustrial democracy."  It  has  reorganized  its  own 
Board  of  Directors.  It  has  now  five  members, 
three  representing  capital  and  management,  one 
elected  by  the  Board  of  Operatives,  and  one 
representing  the  community  of  Wappingers 
Falls — who  is  the  President  of  the  town.  This 
is  aimed  to  draw  together  all  the  interests  con- 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  163 

cerned:  the  management,  the  workers,  the  town. 
EspeciaDy  is  the  last  a  novel  idea — community 
representation — for  in  all  old  mill  towns  there 
is  a  heavy  weight  of  dull  local  suspicion  of  the 
mill  and  the  company.  If  the  town  can  know 
what  is  going  on,  it  is  the  theory  of  Mr.  Hatch 
that  the  town  also  will  help.  He  wants  good 
will  all  the  way  round.  The  company  has  now 
also  made  arrangements  to  sell  shares  of  its  stock 
to  its  operatives  at  a  price  somewhat  below 
market  value. 

The  greatest  source  of  difficulty,  suspicion 
and  jealousy,  leading  to  war  in  international 
affairs  is  secret  diplomacy.  And  so  it  is  in  in- 
dustrial affairs:  secret  deals,  back-stairs  agree- 
ments, sly  bookkeeping,  dishonest  profit-sharing. 
The  men  behind  the  Wappinger  Falls  experi- 
ment recognize  this  and  have  provided  for  a 
wide  degree  of  publicity.  With  representatives 
of  the  Board  of  Operatives  sitting  on  the  Board 
of  Management  of  the  mill  nothing  relating  to 
the  manufacturing  end  of  the  business  can  be 
covered  up — and  now  with  a  delegate  of  the 
Operatives  and  of  the  town  in  the  Board  of 
Directors  the  entire  inside  of  the  company's 
business  will  be  known.  This  is  a  very  advanced 
step — taken,  so  far  as  I  know,  by  only  two  other 
employers:  one  the  Filene  Store  in  Boston,  the 
other  the  Procter  &  Gamble  Soap  Company  of 


164      THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

Cincinnati.  It  is  perhaps  practicable  yet  only  in 
relatively  small  industries,  but  it  is  a  tremen- 
dous demonstration  of  the  absolute  sincerity  of 
the  employer  in  approaching  his  problem.  It 
is  also  the  best  insurance  to  the  employer  that 
his  industry  will  weather  hard  times  and  the 
possible  necessity  of  reducing  wages  with  the 
full  co-operation  of  the  workers — for  they,  also, 
will  be  on  the  inside  and  know  of  the  difficulties 
and  problems  that  confront  the  industry  as  well 
as  he  does. 

This,  in  brief,  is  the  new  plan  as  applied  at 
Wappingers  Falls.  It  is,  of  course,  very  new — 
as  are  all  of  these  experiments.  As  Mr.  Hatch 
himself  says: 

'  We  cannot  really  know  how  it  will  work 
until  it  has  been  under  way  for  three  or  four 
years  and  we  have  passed  through  a  period  of 
hard  times  and  losses.  That  will  be  the  test  of 
it!" 

The  great  point,  however,  is  that  here  the 
spirit  of  approach  is  honest  on  both  sides:  there 
are  the  beginnings  of  real  co-operation,  of  real 
democratic  control.  With  such  a  spirit  new 
adjustments  can  be  made  to  meet  new  difficul- 
ties. Like  any  other  human  scheme  it  can  be 
attacked  and  criticized  at  many  points,  but  the 
great  thing  here  is  that  the  problem  is  being 
approached  with  a  genuine  scientific  desire  to 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  165 

know  the  conditions  and  a  spirit  of  goodwill 
in  meeting  them.  If  this  does  not  work  nothing 
else  will — and  we  might  as  well  toss  over  civiliza- 
tion, retire  to  the  cynic's  corner,  and  rail  at  the 
wickedness  of  menl 

I  should  also  like  to  add  just  this  observation: 
and  it  applies  as  well  to  most  of  these  new  ex- 
periments, where  they  are  genuine,  and  that  is 
that  both  sides  seem  to  be  "  having  the  time  of 
their  lives  " — downright  enjoyment  of  the  new 
adventure.  For  it  is  real  creative  work  in  a 
new  field — the  most  fascinating  kind  of  creative 
work:  with  human  beings.  As  one  employer  in 
another  industry  said  to  me: 

"  It's  the  most  interesting  thing  I  ever  did  in 
my  life.  It  beats  mere  money  making  all 
hollow!" 

Like  any  other  truly  creative  work  its  results 
exceed  expectations,  and  yield  unanticipated 
rewards. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

DEVELOPMENT  or  THE  SHOP  COUNCIL  SYSTEM 
IN    AMERICA — METHOD     OF    ORGANI- 
ZATION— THE    MOVEMENT    IN 
ENGLAND  AND  GERMANY 

HERE  is  a  significant  observation 
quoted,  not  from  a  labour  leader,  nor 
yet  from  a  radical  reformer,  but  from 
an  American  steel  master,  who  is  also  a  great 
employer  of  labour: 

'  The  real  leader  in  industry  to-day  is  not  the 
man  who  substitutes  his  own  will  and  his  own 
brain  for  the  will  and  intelligence  of  the  crowd, 
but  the  one  who  releases  the  energies  within 
the  crowd  so  that  the  will  of  the  crowd  can  be 
expressed." 

Charles  M.  Schwab  has  also  said: 

"  I  know  something  about  making  steel  but  I 
don't  know  anywhere  near  as  much  as  the 
thousands  of  steel  workers." 

His  view  corresponds  closely  with  that  of  the 
foremost  thinkers  upon  industrial  reconstruc- 
tion both  here  and  in  Europe;  and  that  is,  that 
there  are  vast  undeveloped  resources  of  knowl- 
edge, energy  and  creative  genius  in  the  human 

166 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  167 

factor  in  industry;  and  that  the  next  great  step 
fo-ward  in  civilization  will  consist  in  releasing 
this  knowledge,  energy,  genius  of  the  great 
masses  of  the  workers. 

Under  the  old  autocratic  regime  in  industry 
there  have  been  specialists  in  financing,  in  sell- 
ing, in  advertising,  in  technical  processes;  but 
the  last  thing  of  all  to  be  considered  was  the 
most  important  of  all,  the  human  element;  the 
labour;  in  industry.  Any  foreman  or  boss  could 
"  hire  and  fire."  It  is  only  very  recently  that 
labour-experts,  labour-managers,  labour-engi- 
neers have  begun  to  appear  as  an  essential  factor 
in  industrial  organization,  and  in  only  a  few  of 
the  more  enlightened  has  the  labour  expert  risen 
to  anything  like  an  equality  of  status  with  the 
other  departmental  chiefs.  I  know  of  only  a  few 
cases  in  which  labour  management  is  dignified  by 
a  vice-presidency  or  other  high  official  recogni- 
tion in  the  company. 

Under  the  old  autocratic  regime  everything  is 
directed  from  above,  according  to  the  will  of  the 
employer  or  manager,  and  the  tendency  is  toward 
the  suppression  of  every  form  of  creative  energy 
on  the  part  of  labour.  The  United  States  Steel 
Corporation  is  to-day  the  greatest  American 
example  of  this  system.  Fortunately,  not  only 
in  the  steel  industry  but  in  many  others  as  well 
the  new  secret  for  releasing  the  enormous  ener- 


168      THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

gies  of  human  beings  is  now  being  discovered 
and  developed.  The  idea  is  spreading  with 
extraordinary  rapidity  both  in  America  and  in 
Europe.  It  is  not  confined  to  the  thoughtful 
labour  leaders,  nor  to  students  or  experts  in  in- 
dustrial management,  but  many  employers  and 
employers'  associations  are,  as  one  observer  said 
to  me,  "  riddled  with  it." 

And  this  "  secret  "  consists  in  applying  to  in- 
dustry little  by  little  the  simple  machinery  of 
democracy. 

'  We  do  not  need  a  revolution,"  said  H.  L. 
Gantt,  one  of  the  true  pioneers  of  the  movement, 
"we  do  not  need  a  class  war.  Most  people  will 
work  for  the  common  good  if  you  give  them  a 
chance.  The  trouble  is  that  we  have  been  cling- 
ing to  an  autocratic  system  under  the  mistaken 
idea  that  it  was  good,  at  least  for  the  aristocrat. 
The  fact  is,  that  it  isn't.  Democracy  is  far 
better  for  all  of  us.  Industrial  democracy  will 
release  our  energies  and  make  us  the  strongest 
people  on  earth." 

I  described  in  the  previous  chapter  how  this 
new  system  had  been  introduced  and  showed  how 
it  worked  in  a  typical  small  industry.  To-day 
there  are  hundreds  even  thousands  of  mills,  fac- 
tories and  other  business  organizations,  all  the 
way  from  huge  steel  plants,  like  the  Colorado 
Fuel  &  Iron  Company,  the  Midvale  Steel 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  169 

Company,  and  important  transportation  and 
shipbuilding  companies,  to  little  factories  with  a 
few  hundred  hands  where  the  new  idea  is  being 
tried  out.  It  is  a  very  new  movement.  Before 
the  war  it  was  practically  unknown  outside  of 
a  few  halting  pioneer  experiments;  to-day  it  is 
scarcely  an  exaggeration  to  say  that  it  is  more 
in  the  thought  of  American  industrial  leadership 
than  any  other  single  group  of  ideas. 

Mr.  Gantt  predicted  that  it  would  make  us 
"  the  strongest  people  on  earth  " — but  we  shall 
have  to  push  hard  indeed  if  we  beat  the  British 
and  the  Germans  in  the  introduction  of  this 
great  new  organization  of  human  energy  in  in- 
dustry. For  the  British  have  already  gone  be- 
yond us  through  the  adoption  as  a  national 
policy  of  the  Whitley  Councils  System  provid- 
ing for  the  reconstruction  of  industry  upon  a 
democratic  basis.  While  a  large  proportion  of 
our  employers  and  labour  leaders,  through  lack 
of  understanding,  are  still  opposing  the  whole 
idea,  the  great  majority  of  both  organized  capi- 
tal and  organized  labour  in  Great  Britain  have 
accepted  it.  Already  forty-one  national  indus- 
tries, including  many  hundreds  of  individual 
plants,  employing  over  two  and  one-half  million 
workers,  are  operating  under  the  new  system — 
although  none  of  the  great  basic  industries  have 
yet  adopted  it. 


170      THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

The  Germans  have  sought  the  same  end  in 
their  methodical  and  formal  way  by  passing,  on 
January  17th  of  this  year  (1920)  a  "shops 
council "  law  which  will  apply  to  all  factories  or 
plants  where  "more  than  five  men  or  women 
are  employed."  It  is  called  "  one  of  the  most 
radical  pieces  of  economic  legislation  since  the 
war."  It  means  the  gradual  reconstruction  of 
German  industry  upon  a  co-operative  and  demo- 
cratic basis. 

Compared  with  the  sweeping  changes  contem- 
plated in  both  Great  Britain  and  Germany — 
our  economic  competitors — the  American  move- 
ment is  still  tentative  and  experimental.  Al- 
though many  enterprises  are  trying  out  the  sys- 
tem, this  represents  a  very  small  proportion  of 
the  tens  of  thousands  of  employing  establish- 
ments in  America.  It  is  as  yet  a  mere  crack  in 
the  surface  of  the  old  order. 

The  new  method  was  adopted  whole-heartedly 
during  the  war  by  our  own  War  Labour  Board, 
and  through  that  organization  applied  in  more  or 
less  rudimentary  forms  to  many  industries 
where  labour  disturbances  were  threatened — 
great  concerns  like  the  General  Electric  Com- 
pany, at  its  Pittsfield  and  Lynn  plants,  the 
Bethlehem  Steel  Corporation,  the  American 
Cash  Register  Company,  and  several  important 
plants  at  Bridgeport,  Conn.  And  the  Presi- 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  171 

dent's  Industrial  Commission  which  recently  sat 
at  Washington  has  recommended  the  adoption 
of  the  new  'system  as  one  of  the  main  features 
of  its  report.  There  is  this  to  be  said  about 
Americans;  they  are  quick  learners,  and  once 
they  understand  the  enormous  possibilities  of  the 
new  co-operative  relationship  there  is  no  doubt 
that  it  will  be  swiftly  applied.  The  atmosphere 
of  American  life  is  peculiarly  favourable  to  the 
growth  of  such  democratic  movements,  and  we 
have  already  demonstrated,  during  the  war,  an 
extraordinary  ability  to  "  get  together  "  and  to 
infuse  industry  with  a  "  spirit  of  co-operation  " 
which  accomplished  great  results  in  a  short  time. 

DeTocqueville  long  ago  called  attention  to  the 
peculiar  genius  of  Americans  for  forming  asso- 
ciations of  all  kinds,  for  all  purposes — in  short, 
their  ability  to  work  together. 

'  Wherever  at  the  head  of  some  new  under- 
taking you  see  the  government  in  France,  or 
a  man  of  rank  in  England,  in  the  United  States 
you  will  be  sure  to  find  an  association.  The 
English  often  perform  great  things  singly, 
whereas  the  Americans  form  associations  for 
the  smallest  undertakings." 

The  American  approach  to  the  new  system  is 
by  the  American  method,  through  encourage- 
ment by  volunteer  associations  and  experimenta- 
tion in  actual  enterprises.  It  lacks  the  regu- 


172      THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

larity  of  a  German  system  prescribed  by  law, 
or  a  British  system  carefully  studied  by  a  gov- 
ernmental body  and  adopted  from  above,  but 
what  it  loses  in  uniformity  it  may  gain  through 
variety  of  creative  experimentation,  the  attempt 
by  many  individual  brains  to  apply  the  principle 
to  specific  cases.  This  cannot  fail  to  produce  a 
greater  degree  of  flexibility  and  a  closer  adapta- 
tion to  actual  needs  than  any  prepared  plan. 
The  creative  impulse  thrives  best  where  experi- 
mentation is  freest. ' 

So  it  is  that  when  we  endeavour  in  America 
to  define  what  the  new  system  of  "  industrial 
democracy  "  really  is,  we  find  a  large  number  of 
different  "  plans  "  or  "  systems,"  varying  widely 
in  detail  or  still  more  widely  in  spirit.  We  have 
the  Colorado  Fuel  and  Iron  plan,  the  Bridge- 
port plan,  the  Leitch  plan,  the  Amalgamated 
Garment  Workers  plan,  and  others,  and  as  yet 
no  comprehensive  governmental  plan  at  all.  It 
is  a  movement  which  has  grown  more  or  less 
spontaneously  from  within. 

Now,  I  shall  not  enter  here  into  a  discussion 
of  the  details  of  these  various  plans.  I  have 
illustrated  in  a  former  article  exactly  how  the 
system  was  applied  in  one  small  industry,  but 
there  are  certain  broad  general  principles  which 
underlie  the  entire  movement.  Fundamentally, 
the  effort  is  to  do  away  with  the  old  autocratic 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  173 

and  militaristic  organization  of  industry,  and 
gradually  substitute  for  it  a  new  co-operative 
and  democratic  organization. 

Under  the  new  system  labour  is  no  longer 
regarded  as  a  mere  part  of  the  machinery,  but 
as  a  partner  with  a  definite  share  in  the  manage- 
ment. The  essential  structure  is  very  simple.  It 
consists  of  committees  secretly  elected  by  the 
workmen  of  a  shop  or  an  industry  (hence  the 
names  "  shop  committee  "  or  "  employees'  repre- 
sentatives ")  to  meet  similar  committees  ap- 
pointed by  the  management,  thus  producing  a 
"  workers'  council  "  or  "  trade  board  "  to  discuss 
and  settle  certain  of  the  problems  of  manage- 
ment— beginning  with  the  problems  especially 
affecting  labour,  working  conditions,  wages, 
hours  and  the  like.  One  vital  purpose  of  the 
movement  is  to  reach  and  deal  with  the  causes 
of  unrest  and  never  permit  disagreements  to 
develop  to  the  point  of  open  war  (strikes).  It 
may  be  a  very  crude  and  partial  arrangement 
in  which  only  a  little  democracy  is  let  into  the 
industry,  and  only  very  limited  powers  con- 
ferred upon  the  "  council,"  or  it  may  go  to  the 
length  of  admitting  a  representative  of  the 
workers  to  a  place  in  the  Board  of  Directors 
of  the  company  with  extensive  privileges 
granted  the  workers  of  sharing  in  the  profits 
and  of  purchasing  stock  in  the  corpora- 


174      THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

tion — as  in  the  example  at  Wappingers  Falls 
which  I  have  already  described.  All  of  the 
experiments  represent  an  approach  to  "  indus- 
trial democracy."  Those  who  wish  to  go  into 
the  whole  matter  more  fully — and  there  is  a 
notable  awakening  of  interest  nr  this  subject  all 
over  America — may  find  further  -information  in 
certain  books  and  reports:  or  better  yet,  by 
visiting  some  plant  where  the  system  is  now  in 
operation.  The  subject  is  as  yet  so  very  new, 
and  the  developments  are  so  rapid,  that  the 
literature  is  rather  unsatisfactory.  Two  new 
books  which  interpret  the  spirit  of  the  move- 
ment are  "  Industrial  Good- Will "  by  Profes- 
sor John  R.  Commons  of  Wisconsin  University, 
one  of  the  best  of  our  American  authorities, 
and  "  Industry  and  Humanity,"  by  W.  L. 
Mackenzie  King,  former  Minister  of  Labour  of 
Canada.  For 'a  more  detailed  account  of  actual 
plans  in  operation  there  is  a  report  on  "  Shop 
Committees  and  Industrial  Councils "  pub- 
lished by  the  New  Jersey  State  Chamber 
of  Commerce,  Newark,  N.  J.,  and  a  sum- 
mary, "  Works  Councils  in  the  United 
States,"  by  the  National  Industrial  Con- 
ference Board,  15  Beacon  Street,  Boston.  This 
latter  is  a  report  made  under  the  direction  of 
twenty-five  of  the  foremost  Employers'  Asso- 
ciations of  America.  Other  excellent  reports 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  175 

may  be  obtained  by  applying  to  the  United 
States  Department  of  Labour:  and  there  is  a 
small  book  by  W.  L.  Stoddard  upon  the  experi- 
ence of  the  War  Labour  Board  in  establishing 
shop  committees. 

Much  opposition  to  the  new  system  in 
America  is  to  be  found  among  both  employers 
and  employees.  Upon  the  side  of  the  employers 
it  is  due  in  part  to  the  natural  inertia  of  men 
who  have  succeeded  by  the  old  method,  who 
know  that  method  well,  and  are  fearful  of  any 
change  or  new  adventure:  in  part  to  the  human 
desire  to  maintain  "  authority  " ;  and  in  part  to 
the  short-sightedness  that  sees  more  immediate 
profit  in  the  present  system.  It  is  so  much 
easier  to  "  boss  "  than  to  co-operate.  And  the 
new  system  looks  like  revolution!  Many  em- 
ployers will  examine  it  seriously  only  after  they 
have  been  through  the  hard  punishment  of 
strikes  or  other  labour  disturbances.  It  is 
among  the  younger,  more  progressive,  more 
thoughtful  employers  that  the  movement  is 
spreading  most  rapidly.  Since  the  close  of  the 
recent  steel  strike,  employers  opposed  to  the 
plan  have  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  em- 
ployers working  in  companies  having  the  new 
system  (in  a  more  or  less  rudimentary  form) 
like  the  Colorado  Fuel  and  Iron  Company  and 
the  Midvale  Steel  Company — went  out  on  strike 


176      THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

with  the  other  steel  workers.  This  is  true  (ex- 
cept as  to  the  Bethlehem  Steel  Company  where 
the  new  plan  of  co-operation  and  conciliation 
was  largely  instrumental  in  keeping  the  plant 
going)  but  significantly  it  has  not  discouraged 
a  single  one  of  these  great  employers.  They  are 
going  straight  ahead  with  their  forward-looking 
experiments.  As  the  Iron  Age  well  says  in  an 
editorial : 

We  have  looked  upon  the  steps  taken  by  various  steel 
companies  to  cultivate  better  relations  with  their  employees 
through  conference  committees,  on  which  the  employee  rep- 
resentatives are  chosen  by  the  workers,  as  having  great 
promise,  and  we  have  the  same  opinion  in  spite  of  what 
happened  at  these  plants  in  the  period  of  the  strike. 

It  need  hardly  be  said  that  the  defeat  of  the  steel  strike 
leaders  and  the  rising  up  of  public  opinion  against  them  do 
not  signify  that  there  is  no  call  for  change  in  labor  condi- 
tions in  the  steel  industry.  .  .  . 

The  fact  that  so  many  workers  in  the  production  of  steel 
are  of  foreign  birth  makes  all  the  more  necessary  the  em- 
ployment of  extraordinary  means  by  the  employers  to  estab- 
lish a  relation  of  confidence.  The  problem  is  neither  more 
nor  less  than  that  of  realizing  throughout  the  industry  the 
same  democracy  that  was  urged  as  the  goal  of  every  united 
effort  of  managers  and  men  during  the  war.  We  believe 
the  employee  representation  plan  is  the  best  means  yet 
devised  for  reaching  the  desired  end. 

On  the  part  of  the  workers  the  opposition  to 
the  new  idea  is  also  due  to  fear  and  misunder- 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  177 

standing — especially  among  the  older  and  more 
conservative  leaders  of  the  Gompers  type.  They 
have  built  up  their  labour  organization  upon  a 
militaristic  basis:  they  regard  the  employer 
more  or  less  as  a  natural  enemy  upon  whom, 
from  time  to  time,  they  make  war  (strike)  and 
with  whom  they  sign  truces  (collective  bar- 
gains). It  is  as  hard  for  them  to  get  the  new 
idea  of  frank  co-operation  and  a  democratic 
relationship  as  it  is  for  the  old-fashioned  em- 
ployers. And  they  really  have  a  genuine  basis 
for  their  apprehension:  for  in  some  cases  the 
new  device  of  shop -organizations,  so-called 
"  company  unions,"  has  been  deliberately  used 
by  employers  for  hampering  labour  organization 
or  weakening  its  influence.  The  workers  know 
what  an  indispensable  instrument  labour  organi- 
zation has  been  to  them  in  getting  even  the 
primary  recognition  of  their  rights  and  they 
dread  desperately  anything  which  suggests  inter- 
ference with  their  free  action  in  this  regard. 
They  are  very  suspicious  of  certain  of  the  "  com- 
pany unions"  in  the  steel  industry:  indeed  one 
of  their  demands  when  the  steel  strike  was 
called  was  the  "abolition  of  company  unions." 

On  the  other  hand  some  of  the  progressive 
younger  leaders  like  Hillman  of  the  Amalga- 
mated Garment  Workers,  believe  thoroughly 
in  the  new  movement  on  the  ground  that  any 


association  of  workers,  giving  them  freedom 
to  act  in  matters  pertaining  to  their  own  lives, 
ieads  certainly  to  more  self-conscious  organiza- 
tion— and  will  tend  to  help  rather  than  hinder 
the  labour  movement. 

The  only  secure  approach  to  the  new  system 
is  a  genuine  spirit  of  goodwill  firmly  based 
upon  a  scientific  examination  of  all  the  factors 
in  the  problem.  Any  employer  who  "  takes  on  " 
the  "  shop  committee "  or  "  employees'  repre- 
sentation "  system  merely  as  a  sop  to  labour,  or 
with  the  intention  of  using  it  to  light  unionism, 
or  to  postpone  doing  real  justice  to  the  workers, 
is  doomed  to  failure.  He  discredits  the  whole 
idea,  in  which  the  spirit  of  approach  is  the  es- 
sential element.  If  he  wants  to  reap  the  benefits 
of  industrial  democracy  he  must  begin  by  being 
democratic :  if  he  wants  genuine  co-operation,  he 
must  himself  genuinely  co-operate.  In  England 
the  Whitley  plan  of  workers'  councils  presup- 
poses complete  organization  of  labour;  and  la- 
bour must  never  be  expected  to  forego  the  full 
use  of  its  one  weapon  of  defence — organization 
and  the  strike — unless  it  is  thoroughly  convinced 
that  capital  and  management  is  sincere  in  its 
proffers  of  co-operation  and  conciliation,  .and 
honestly  proposes  to  introduce  a  greater  degree 
of  democracy  in  management. 


CHAPTER  XV 

THE  SHOP  COUNCIL  SYSTEM  AS  APPLIED  TO  THE 

MEN'S  CLOTHING  INDUSTRY  OF  AMERICA  AND 

CANADA — THE  HISTORY,  PRINCIPLES  AND 

STRUCTURE  OF  THE  DEVELOPMENT 

1COME  now  to  what  is  undoubtedly  the 
most  significant  and  comprehensive  experi- 
ment, at  present  under  way  in  America, 
in  the  introduction  of  a  new  co-operative  and 
democratic  relationship  in  industry. 

It  has  demonstrated  its  success  in  certain 
markets  over  a  longer  period  than  any  other. 
It  has  operated  in  what  was  for  years  the  most 
turbulent  of  all  industries — the  men's  clothing 
trades.  Here  competition  among  employers 
was  bitterest  and  most  unscrupulous:  here 
labour  conditions  were  the  worst;  here  in  the 
ghettos  and  the  tenement  districts  of  New  York 
and  Chicago  extreme  radicalism  found — and  still 
finds — its  toughest  rootage.  And  yet  out  of 
this  condition  of  industrial  anarchy  has  de- 
veloped the  beginning  of  a  reign  of  law,  founded 
upon  a  genuine  spirit  of  co-operation. 

In  the  shops  of  Hart,  Schaffner  &  Marx  of 
Chicago,  with  7,000  workmen,  where  the  new 

179 


180      THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

idea  has  been  tested  out  for  over  nine  years — 
lasting  through  the  strain  of  the  war  and 
through  epidemics  of  labour  disturbances  in 
neighbouring  clothing  factories — there  has  never 
been  a  strike.  On  the  other  hand  an  immense 
and  steady  improvement  has  taken  place  not 
only  in  the  living  conditions,  but  in  the  spirit  of 
responsible  independence,  the  morale,  the  man- 
hood, of  the  workers;  production  per  man  \in. 
that  market,  at  least)  has  been  rising:  and  fin- 
ally, the  employers  have  been  steadily  pros- 
perous. As  to  the  effect  of  the  new  system 
upon  the  consuming  public  I  shall  speak  later. 

A  plan,  a  system,  a  spirit,  which  will  accom- 
plish all  these  results  in  a  time  of  industrial  un- 
rest is  assuredly  worth  careful  examination. 

In  order  to  make  the  present  situation  per- 
fectly clear,  let  us  recall  for  a  moment  the  three 
stages  through  which  the  clothing  industry  in 
common,  indeed,  with  others — has  passed  during 
recent  years. 

1.  The  period  of  unrestricted  competition 
among  both  employers  and  workers.  I  remem- 
ber well,  many  years  ago,  studying  and  writing 
about  conditions  in  the  garment  trades.  Cloth- 
ing was  then  made  in  dark  holes  in  tenements — 
veritable  "  sweat  shops " — by  miserable  and 
helpless  foreigners  who  were  driven  to  long 
hours  of  work  at  starvation  wages  by  the  un- 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  181 

regulated  operation  of  the  law  of  supply  and 
demand.  By  subdivision  of  labour  the  system 
had  stolen  the  skill  of  the  craftsman  and  given 
nothing  in  return.  It  requires  to-day  fifty 
workers  to  make  a  pair  of  pants,  and  of  tens 
of  thousands  of  tailors  very  few  could  to-day 
make  a  coat,  still  less  a  suit  of  clothing. 

The  whole  industry  had  become  a  blind  and 
greedy  struggle  for  jobs  among  thousands  of 
unskilled  men.  "Employers  were  practically  as 
helpless  as  the  workers :  they  were  equally  bound 
upon  the  wheel  of  cut-throat  competition.  Any 
one  of  them  who  tried  to  improve  conditions  was 
speedily  forced  to  the  wall  by  ruthless  com- 
petitors. 

2.  The  second  great  stage  represented  the 
effort  to  escape  from  this  hopeless  condition  of 
competitive  anarchy  by  organization.  Both  sides 
in  all  branches  of  American  industry  began  to 
combine,  the  employers  in  corporations,  trusts, 
associations;  the  workers  in  labour  unions. 
Where  large  capital  was  invested  and  extensive 
machinery  was  necessary — as  in  the  steel  in- 
dustry— anarchy  often  gave  place  to  an  autoc- 
racy of  capital:  with  law  and  order  imposed 
from  above  by  a  strong  man  or  group  of  men. 
Judge  Gary  to-day  is  such  an  autocrat:  and  the 
United  States  Steel  Corporation  is  an  example 
of  this  stage  of  development.  It  has  succeeded 


182      THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

by  organizing  capital  and  keeping  the  workers 
more  or  less  disorganized. 

But  this  development  was  not  possible  in  the 
clothing  industry,  because  an  employer  could 
get  into  it  with  almost  no  capital  at  all.  All 
that  was  needed  was  a  loft,  or  even  one  room,  a 
few  sewing  machines  (or  not  any),  and  an 
ability  to  attract,  dominate,  or  browbeat 
labour. 

But  if  the  employers  in  the  clothing  industry 
could  not  combine,  the  workers  could  and  did. 
They  began  organizing  by  crafts,  the  more 
skilled  men  first,  and  there  ensued  a  long  and 
bitter  warfare  of  strikes  and  lockouts.  Unions 
were  broken  and  defeated  only  to  rise  and  fight 
again.  The  whole  industry  was  kept  in  a  con- 
dition of  chaos.  The  United  Garment  Workers, 
affiliated  with  the  American  Federation  of 
Labour,  at  one  time  became  very  powerful  but 
not  powerful  enough  to  impose  upon  the  in- 
dustry an  autocracy  of  labour — equivalent  to  the 
autocracy  of  capital  in  the  steel  industry.  For 
floods  of  new  immigrants  kept  coming  into  the 
country  bringing  new  labour  competition,  and 
requiring  Herculean  efforts  on  the  part  of  the 
unions  to  educate  them  to  the  need  of  organiza- 
tion. And  one  of  the  fundamental  ideas  upon 
which  unionism  then  rested — ai»d  it  remains  to- 
day an  essential  weakness  of  the  American 


\ 


REASONS' AND  REMEDIES  183 

Federation  of  Labour— was  craft  organization, 
at  a  Jime  when  craft  skill  and  craft  lines  were  of 
steadily  decreasing  importance  in  many  branches 
of  industry. 

In  the  years  from  about  1908  until  the  out- 
break of  the  Great  War  (it  was  worst  of  all  in 
New  York — better,  after  1911,  in  Chicago) 
the  conditions  in  the  clothing  industry  were 
all  but  intolerable.  There  were  repeated  and 
costly  strikes  and  lockouts,  a  constant  tendency 
on  both  sides  to  avoid  living  up  to  agreements, 
a  steady  decrease  in  production  and  efficiency. 
Neither  side  was  strong  enough  to  impose  law 
and  order  in  the  industry.  This  is  the  unfortu- 
nate stage  in  which  many  great  industries  in 
America  now  find  themselves.  The  coal-mining 
industry,  for  example,  has  recently  reached  an 
intolerable  deadlock. 

3.  We  are  now  entering  upon  the  great  third 
stage  of  development.  It  is  not  surprising  that 
it  has  come  earliest  in  the  clothing  industry 
because,  as  I  have  shown,  the  conditions  were 
such  that  both  employers  and  workers  became 
convinced  that  life  was  impossible  in  either  of 
the  other  stages. 

Some  wholly  new  method  was  necessary. 
Organized  hostility  in  industry  had  produced 
only  chaos:  what  remained  but  to  try  co-opera- 
tion? Autocracy  of  capital  in  industry  had  not 


184      THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

resulted  in  justice  or  in  a  reign  of  law;  what 
remained  but  to  try  democracy? 

This  is  the  great  change,  the  right-about-face, 
implied  in  the  present  remarkable  wave  of  ex- 
perimentation, which  I  have  described  in  former 
chapters,  with  the  new  system  of  "  shop  com- 
mittees," "  works  councils,"  "  trade  boards." 

Two  men,  both  in  the  same  shop,  one  an  em- 
ployer, one  a  worker,  are  mainly  responsible  for 
the  beginnings  of  the  new  development  in  the 
garment  trade.  They  were  both  men  of  vision 
and  of  practical  courage.  It  is  a  very  interest- 
ing story.  The  employer  was  Schaffner,  of 
Hart,  Schaffner  &  Marx.  He  had  built  up  a 
large  business  in  Chicago,  he  had  retained  in  his 
workers  a  more  than  ordinarily  close  and  benevo- 
lent interest.  When  the  great  strike  of  1910  tied 
up  his  shops  it  nearly  broke  his  heart.  It  seemed 
the  height  of  ingratitude  on  the  part  of  the 
workers.  But  unlike  many  employers  who  have  to 
face  this  problem  he  did  not  become  blindly  angry 
and  assume  that  he  was  all  right  and  the  workers 
all  wrong — and  that  a  stupid  resort  to  force 
was  the  only  solution.  He  asked  himself  what 
the  trouble  really  was.  He  began  to  inquire 
into  the  whole  subject  of  relationships  between 
employers  and  workers.  One  thing  he  discov- 
ered immediately  was  that  as  his  shops  had 
grown  larger,  and  machinery  had  been  intro- 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  185 

duced,  that  the  old  personal  relationship  and 
personal  understanding  between  him  and  his 
workers  had  become  impossible. 

"  The  great  trouble,"  he  said,  "  is  that  I  don't 
really  know  my  own  men.  I  don't  really  know 
what  is  going  on  in  my  own  shops." 

If  he  did  not  know  his  men,  it  was  important 
that  he  should  know  them.  So  he  employed  a 
man  who  was  entirely  outside  of  the  industry 
and  therefore  not  prejudiced,  a  man  with  a 
trained,  scientific  mind,  to  study  the  problem. 
This  was  Professor  Earl  Dean  Howard  of 
Xorthwestern  University,  probably  the  pioneer 
labour  manager — at  least  of  the  new  type — in 
American  industry.  There  are  now  over  fifty 
such  labour  managers  in  the  clothing  trades 
alone,  many  of  them  formerly  college  professors. 
It  was  such  an  evident  thing  to  do !  There  were 
experts  in  advertising,  experts  in  selling,  experts 
in  financing,  experts  in  production — and  no  ex- 
perts at  all  in  the  most  important  factor  of  all 
in  industry — labour.  Goodwill  in  industry  is 
not  enough.  Schaffner  had  had  goodwill  and  his 
men  had  struck.  There  must,  indeed  be  good- 
will, but  it  must  be  based  upon  accurate  knowl- 
edge and  a  common  understanding. 

This  was  the  beginning  of  the  new  experiment 
upon  the  part  of  the  employer. 

In  the  same  shop  there  was  a  young  Jewish 


186      THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

clothing  cutter  named  Sidney  Hillman.  He 
was  at  the  time  only  twenty-four  years  old.  He 
was  born  in  Russia  and  came  up  through  the 
narrow  but  thorough  training  of  a  rabbinical 
school.  Like  so  many  other  restless  young 
Russians  he  became  an  active  revolutionary 
against  the  Czarist  government.  He  was  ar- 
rested before  he  was  eighteen  years  old  and 
thrown  into  prison  where  he  spent  his  time  read- 
ing every  book  upon  economics  and  political 
science  he  could  lay  hands  upon.  When  he 
got  out  of  prison  he  left  Russia,  spent  a  year 
in  Manchester,  England,  and  then  came  to 
Chicago  where  he  went  to  work  in  the  plant  of 
Sears,  Roebuck  &  Co.  and  later  in  the  shops  of 
Hart,  Schaffner  &  Marx.  He  had  an  ambition 
to  be  a  lawyer,  but  when  the  labour  disturbances 
began  he  at  once  came  into  local  leadership  and 
was  the  principal  agent  on  the  part  of  the  men 
in  working  out  with  the  firm  the  remarkable  new 
co-operative  agreement  which  went  into  effect 
during  the  following  year,  1911. 

At  the  time  of  this  agreement  the  dominant 
union  in  the  garment  trades  was  the  United 
Garment  Workers  which  was  affiliated  with  the 
American  Federation  of  Labour.  But  many  of 
the  local  organizations  were  discontented  with 
the  old  craft  unionism  and  the  militaristic 
methods  and  leadership  of  the  American  Federa- 


187 

tion  of  Labour.  In  the  national  convention  of 
the  United  Garment  Workers  in  1913  the  differ- 
ences came  to  a  head  and  when  a  considerable 
number  of  delegates  were  denied  seats  they  with- 
drew, held  a  rump  convention  of  their  own, 
formed  a  new  organization  called  the  Amalga- 
mated Clothing  Workers,  and  elected  Sidney 
Hillman  their  President,  although  he  was  not 
present  at  the  convention. 

The  principles  upon  which  the  new  organiza- 
tion was  founded  were  in  brief  as  follows: 

1.  To  place  less  emphasis  upon  craft  organi- 
zation and  more  upon  a  union  of  all  the  workers 
in  the  industry;  to  be  as  hospitable  toward  the 
unskilled  as  toward  the  skilled. 

2.  To  co-operate  with  employers  wherever 
possible  rather  than  to  fight  them — but  to  fight 
and  fight  hard  if  necessary.     They  had  before 
them  the  Hart,  Schaffner  &  Marx  agreement  of 
1911  as  a  way  of  approach  toward  industrial 
democracy. 

Although  excommunicated  by  the  American 
Federation  of  Labour  this  new  organization 
spread  with  extraordinary  rapidity.  To-day  it 
has  a  membership  of  some  200,000  and  prac- 
tically dominates  the  workers  in  the  men's 
garment  trades  (except  for  certain  shops  chiefly 
making  overalls  which  are  still  affiliated  with  the 
old  United  Garment  Workers)  of  America  and 


188      THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

Canada.  It  is  one  of  the  most  powerful  unions 
in  the  country;  it  publishes  its  paper  in  seven 
languages;  it  conducts  interesting  welfare  and 
educational  work;  it  is  planning  large  office 
buildings  for  its  use  (one  to  cost  a  million  dol- 
lars) in  New  York  and  Chicago;  it  is  projecting 
co-operative  enterprises  of  several  kinds;  it  was 
rich  enough  to  send  a  check  for  $100,000  to  the 
steel  workers  in  their  recent  strike.  It  has  suc- 
ceeded in  binding  together  in  a  close  union 
workers  of  a  dozen  different  nationalities  and 
races,  chiefly  Jews,  Italians,  Poles,  Bohemians, 
but  including  many  old-stock  Americans,  Scotch, 
English,  Scandinavians  and  others. 

The  essential  element  in  the  Hart,  Schaffner 
&  Marx  agreement  from  which  the  entire  de- 
velopment springs  is  also  the  fundamental  idea 
found  in  the  "  shop  committee  "  system  that  I 
have  already  described — that  labour  must  be 
represented  in  managing  those  elements  of 
industry  which  concern  its  own  life.  Therefore 
the  Hart,  Schaffner  &  Marx  agreement  pro- 
vides for  the  secret  election  by  the  workers  in 
each  shop  of  a  "  chairman."  These  chairmen, 
who  are,  of  course,  union  men,  because  the  shops 
are  firmly  organized,  elect  five  delegates  to  meet 
five  representatives  of  the  employees  in  a  "  trade 
board  "  where  all  questions  that  arise  can  be 
discussed  upon  an  equal  and  democratic  basis. 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  189 

This  is  in  its  essence  the  usual  "  shop  coun- 
cils "  system;  but  in  the  garment  trades  two 
very  important  new  features  have  been  intro- 
duced. One  is  the  principle  of  continuous  nego- 
tiation, with  an  agreement  never  to  let  a  dif- 
ference of  opinion  reach  the  point  of  a  strike. 
Instead  of  meeting  occasionally  and  dealing  at 
arm's  length,  these  "  trade  boards  "  in  Chicago 
are  in  session  every  day  and  any  trouble  that 
may  arise  is  instantly  dealt  with. 

The  other  important  feature  is  the  "  impar- 
tial chairman."  He  is  the  outsider  who  is  chosen 
to  preside  over  the  trade  board  and  to  decide 
questions  when  a  deadlock  occurs  between  the 
five  members  representing  the  workers  and  the 
five  members  representing  the  employers.  In 
short,  there  is  not  only  continuous  negotiation 
but  continuous  arbitration.  Very  able  and 
broad-minded  men,  often  college  professors, 
have  been  cjiosen  for  impartial  chairmen  and 
arbitrators.  At  present  Professor  James  H. 
Tufts  of  Chicago  University  is  chairman  of  the 
Board  of  Arbitration  in  the  Chicago  market. 

So  much  lies  in  the  spirit  of  approach  to  these 
new  methods  that  every  one  who  is  really  inter- 
ested ought  to  read  the  following  four  extracts 
(written  by  J.  E.  Williams,  now  deceased,  the 
first  chairman  of  the  Board  of  Arbitration,  and 
one  of  the  real  creators  of  the  movement)  from 


190      THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

the  preamble  of  the  agreement — which  are  in 
their  way  a  setting  forth  of  the  basic  principles 
for  a  new  constitution  for  industry,  which  is 
now  in  the  making: 

On  the  part  of  the  employer  it  is  the  intention  and  ex- 
pectation that  this  compact  of  peace  will  result  in  the 
establishment  and  maintenance  of  a  high  order  of  discipline 
and  efficiency  by  the  willing  co-operation  of  union  and 
workers  rather  than  by  the  old  method  of  surveillance  and 
coercion;  that  by  the  exercise  of  this  discipline  all  stop- 
pages and  interruptions  of  work,  and  all  wilful  violations 
of  rules  will  cease;  that  good  standards  of  workmanship 
and  conduct  will  be  maintained  and  a  proper  quantity, 
quality  and  cost  of  production  will  be  assured ;  and  that  out 
of  its  operation  will  issue  such  co-operation  and  goodwill 
between  employers,  foremen,  union  and  workers  as  will  pre- 
vent misunderstanding  and  friction  and  make  for  good 
team-work,  good  business,  mutual  advantage  and  mutual 
respect. 

On  the  part  of  the  union  it  is  the  intention  and  expecta- 
tion that  this  compact  will,  with  the  co-operation  of  the  em- 
ployer, operate  in  such  a  way  as  to  maintain,  strengthen, 
and  solidify  its  organization,  so  that  it  may  be  strong 
enough,  and  efficient  enough  to  co-operate  as  contemplated 
in  the  preceding  paragraph ;  and  also  that  it  may  be  strong 
enough  to  command  the  respect  of  the  employer  without 
being  forced  to  resort  to  militant  or  unfriendly  measures. 

On  the  part  of  the  workers  it  is  the  intention  and  ex- 
pectation that  they  pass  from  the  status  of  wage  servants, 
with  no  claim  on  the  employer  save  his  economic  need,  to 
that  of  self-respecting  parties  to  an  agreement  which  they 
have  had  an  equal  part  with  him  in  making;  that  this  status 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  191 

gives  them  an  assurance  of  fair  and  just  treatment  and 
protects  them  against  injustice  or  oppression  of  those  who 
may  have  been  placed  in  authority  over  them ;  that  they  will 
have  recourse  to  a  court,  in  the  creation  of  which  their  votes 
were  equally  potent  with  that  of  the  employer,  in  which  all 
their  grievances  may  be  heard,  and  all  their  claims  adjudi- 
cated; that  all  changes  during  the  life  of  the  pact  shall  be 
subject  to  the  approval  of  an  impartial  tribunal,  and  that 
wages  and  working  conditions  shall  not  fall  below  the  level 
provided  for  in  the  agreement. 

The  parties  to  this  pact  realize  that  the  interests  sought 
to  be  reconciled  herein  will  tend  to  pull  apart,  but  they 
enter  it  in  the  faith  that  by  the  exercise  of  the  co-operative 
and  constructive  spirit  it  will  be  possible  to  bring  and  keep 
them  together.  This  will  involve  as  an  indispensable  pre- 
requisite the  total  suppression  of  the  militant  spirit  by  both 
parties  and  the  development  of  reason  instead  of  force  as 
the  rule  of  action. 

The  new  arrangement  in  the  Hart,  Schaffner 
&  Marx  shops  though  at  first  regarded  by  many 
employers  with  great  suspicion  and  scepticism, 
worked  so  well  that  it  has  now  spread  until  it 
covers  the  entire  industry  in  America. 

In  each  of  the  great  markets — Chicago,  New  \ 
York,  Rochester,  Baltimore — there  are  "  market 
boards  "  in  which  the  organized  employers  meet 
the  organized  workers  to  discuss  and  settle  prob- 
lems that  concern  the  wider  interests  that  arise 
in  the  entire  market.  Last  July,  1919,  another 
great  step  forward  was  taken:  the  employers  of 
the  entire  country  organized  a  National  Federa- 


192      THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

tion  to  meet  upon  an  equal  basis  the  national 
union  of  the  workers  and  to  establish  a  national 
joint  board  which  should  be  in  effect  a  govern- 
ment for  the  entire  trade  in  America  and 
Canada — establishing  law  and  order  for  the 
whole  industry.  This  has  just  begun  to  func- 
tion. 

In  this  chapter  I  have  sketched  all  too  briefly 
the  interesting  history  of  this  new  movement,  set 
forth  the  principles  upon  which  it  is  based,  and 
outlined  the  structure  of  its  organization.  In  the 
next  chapter  I  shall  examine  the  development 
critically.  How  has  it  affected  the  worker,  how 
the  employer,  how  the  public?  What  are  its 
defects  and  limitations,  if  any? 


CHAPTER  XVI 

A  CRITICAL  EXAMINATION  OF  THE  SHOP  COUN- 
CIL SYSTEM  IN  THE  CLOTHING  INDUSTRY 
— How  DOES  IT  REALLY  WORK? — 
WHAT  ARE  ITS  EXCELLENCES 
AND  LIMITATIONS? 

READ  this  acute  description  of  the  pres- 
ent condition  of  American  industry: 
"  A  chronic  state  of  civil  warfare — 
with  the  classes  perpetually  struggling  for  ad- 
vantage— with  small  consideration  for  the  public 
welfare." 

Signs  of  emergence  from  this  intolerable  con- 
dition are  now  beginning  to  appear — here  and 
there  a  factory  flies  the  flag  of  the  new  republic, 
here  and  there  a  shop  or  a  mill,  but  only  one 
great  national  industry,  thus  far,  has  risen  into 
the  new  reign  of  law,  established  anything  like  a 
stable  or  orderly  government. 

I  described  in  my  last  chapter  the  representa- 
tive system  of  government  in  the  men's  clothing 
trades  of  America,  where  we  have  both  em- 
ployers and  workers  organized  and  the  rudi- 
ments of  legislative,  judicial  and  administrative 
machinery  well  established. 

193 


194      THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

Some  4,000  employers  in  these  trades,  mostly 
in  New  York,  Chicago,  Rochester  and  Balti- 
more, Boston,  Montreal  and  Toronto,  with  an 
enormous  investment  of  capital,  employing  200,- 
000  workers,  are  now  living  under  and  within 
this  new  government — not  all  happily  yet,  but 
with  better  order  and  better  conditions  than  ever 
existed  before.  It  is  the  purpose  of  this  chap- 
ter to  consider  the  new  system  critically.  How 
does  it  really  work?  What  is  its  effect  upon  the 
employer,  the  workers,  the  public? 

The  best  evidence  of  the  success  or  failure  of 
a  government  is  to  be  found  in  the  testimony  of 
the  people  who  live  under  it. 

In  the  factory  where  the  new  government  has 
had  its  longest  and  severest  trial — over  nine 
years  without  a  strike — the  employers,  Hart, 
S chaff ner  &  Marx,  have  this  to  say: 

"  In  our  own  business,  employing  thousands 
of  persons,  some  of  them  newly  arrived  in  this 
country,  some  of  them  in  opposition  to  the  whole 
wage  system,  hostile  to  employers  as  a  class,  we 
have  observed  astonishing  changes  in  their  atti- 
tude under  the  influence  of  our  labour  arrange- 
ments. Many  seem  to  understand  that  they  can 
rely  upon  the  promises  made  to  them  by  the 
company,  and  that  all  disputes  will  be  finally 
adjusted  according  to  just  principles  interpreted 
by  wise  arbitrators." 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  195 

These  employers  find  that  the  unexpected  and 
indirect  advantages  of  the  new  system  are  as  re- 
markable as  the  direct  advantages. 

"  Not  the  least  of  the  advantages  we  have  de- 
rived from  our  system  is  the  reaction  of  the  ideas 
and  ideals,  first  applied  in  the  labour  depart- 
ment, upon  the  other  departments,  and  particu- 
larly upon  the  executive  staff  of  the  manufac- 
turing department.  Inefficient  methods  of  fore- 
men, lack  of  watchful  supervision,  and  inac- 
curate information  as  to  prevailing  conditions  on 
the  part  of  higher  executives,  these  could  not 
long  survive  when  every  complaint  brought 
by  a  workman  was  thoroughly  investigated 
and  the  root-cause  of  the  trouble  brought  to 

light." 

I  had  much  the  same  conclusions  from  Samuel 
Weill,  who  is  at  the  head  of  the  Stein-Bloch 
Company  of  Rochester,  another  large  manu- 
facturer of  clothing.  He  is  thoroughly  con- 
vinced of  the  value  of  orderly  government  in 
industry,  with  the  workers  assuming  their  proper 
share  in  the  management. 

"  By  letting  the  worker  have  what  he  is  en- 
titled to,  we  protect  and  guarantee  what  we  are 
entitled  to,"  he  says :  "  we  cannot  get  security 
unless  we  give  it." 

This  is  inside  testimony  from  employers  who 
have  been  working  under  the  new  system,  and 


196      THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

have  found  it  profitable  both  in  money  and 
in  satisfaction. 

It  is  significant,  also,  that  in  markets  like 
Chicago,  where  the  system  has  been  in  operation 
longest,  the  testimony  is  most  unequivocal.  In 
the  New  York  market,  where  its  acceptance 
is  recent,  there  is  still  much  doubt  and  scepti- 
cism. 

New  York  is  a  market  where  competition 
among  some  2,000  small  manufacturers  and  con- 
tractors is  still  fierce.  They  have  indeed  got 
together  in  a  strong  organization  with  a  labour- 
manager,  Major  B.  H.  Gitchell,  representing 
them,  but  when  confronted  by  the  shortage  of 
labour,  which  now  exists,  and  a  strong  labour 
union,  it  is  difficult  indeed  to  keep  them  in  line. 
The  less  responsible  among  them  secretly  break 
over  the  agreements  and  bid  up  on  wages.  At 
the  same  time  some  of  the  lesser  officials  of  the 
labour  union,  who  have  not  become  fully  imbued 
with  the  new  spirit,  and  who  feel  their  power, 
make  unreasonable  and  autocratic  demands.  I 
found  employers  in  New  York  who  told  me  that 
conditions  had  never  been  worse — and  yet  they 
are  maintaining  their  organization  and  the 
machinery  of  adjustment  and  conciliation. 

'We  employers  are  mostly  to  blame:  we 
aren't  as  willing  to  sacrifice  for  the  common 
good  as  the  workers,"  one  employer  said  to  me, 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  197 

"  but  we'd  be  far  worse  off  than  we  are,  if  we 
hadn't  the  new  system  of  control." 

Indeed,  one  who  gets  down  into  the  new 
movement  is  astonished  sometimes  that  it  can 
exist  at  all.  Selfish  competitive  interests  are  still 
so  strong  on  both  sides,  the  social  spirit  still  so 
weak,  that  it  requires  immense  patience,  steadi- 
ness, perseverance,  to  keep  the  new  spirit  alive 
and  the  new  machinery  in  operation.  On  the 
employers'  side  there  is  always  a  reactionary 
group  that  will  not  "  play  the  game,"  or  sacrifice 
any  present  profit  for  future  security  and  pros- 
perity. And  if  the  employers  find  their  reac- 
tionaries a  problem,  the  workers  find  their  radi- 
cals an  equally  difficult  one.  The  chief  struggle 
of  the  far-sighted  leadership  among  the  Amal- 
gamated Clothing  Workers  is  to  keep  in  line  the 
impatient  extremists  who  are  not  satisfied  with 
steady  growth,  but  want  the  millennium  by  to- 
morrow afternoon. 

No  one  who  examines  these  movements  care- 
fully can  doubt  that  the  greatest  of  all  forces  in 
controlling  and  moderating  radicalism  among 
the  workers  is  not  stupid  force  applied  from 
the  outside,  but  public  opinion  developed  from 
within,  through  vigorous  labour  organizations. 

To  see  the  labour  managers  on  one  side  and 
the  labour  leaders  on  the  other  dealing  day  after 
day  with  these  inflammable  human  elements  in 


198      THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

industry,  trying  to  give  to  short-sighted  selfish- 
ness a  little  wider  vision,  trying  to  mitigate  com- 
petitive ferocity  with  a  touch  of  the  spirit  of  co- 
operative understanding,  trying  to  get  into  the 
dull  brain  of  prejudice  some  little  glimpses  of 
the  problem  of  the  other  man,  is  not  only  to 
appreciate  the  immense  difficulty  of  the  problems 
involved,  but  to  be  filled  with  admiration  for  the 
determined  idealism,  the  patience,  the  faith,  of 
these  leaders,  and  to  wonder  that  they  have  got 
as  far  toward  a  new  reign  of  law  as  they  have. 
When  I  think  of  the  many  men,  both  employers 
and  workers,  who  stand  on  the  side  lines  and 
agitate  and  denounce  and  threaten,  who  have 
theories  and  dogmas  which  they  want  applied 
over  night,  who  demand  that  the  government 
settle  instantly  difficulties  which  they  are  too 
cowardly  or  too  inert  to  settle  themselves,  my 
admiration  for  these  men  who  are  patiently 
playing  the  great  creative  game  on  the  inside 
is  immeasurably  increased. 

The  establishment  of  a  new  reign  of  law 
means,  of  course,  new  methods  of  discipline. 
Ability  to  secure  discipline  is  the  test  of  any 
government.  I  went  with  an  employer  in  New 
York  into  one  of  his  shops  where  there  were 
only  a  few  men  at  work.  He  explained  why: 

*  We  had  a  bad  labour  chairman  here :  and 
the  men  got  so  obstreperous  that  we  could  no 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  199 

longer  stand  it.  Under  their  agreement  they 
could  not  strike,  but  they  could  commit  a  kind 
of  sabotage  by  refusing  to  produce.  Well,  we 
entered  into  negotiations  with  the  higher  union 
officials,  who  investigated  and  found  that  we 
were  right,  and  with  their  sanction  we  discharged 
every  man  in  the  shop :  and  are  now  building  up 
a  new  force.  Under  the  old  system  if  we  had 
discharged  the  entire  force  of  a  shop,  it  would 
have  caused  a  general  strike  and  no  end  of 
trouble:  but  we  had  the  disciplinary  power  of 
the  union  behind  us." 

This  power  of  joint  discipline  is  an  important 
element  in  the  new  agreement.  Both  sides  can 
be,  and  are,  compelled  to  obey  the  law. 

'  The  company's  officials,"  says  Section  VII 
of  the  agreement,  "  are  subject  to  the  law  as  are 
the  workers  and  equally  responsible  for  loyalty 
in  word  and  deed  and  are  subject  to  discipline  if 
found  guilty  of  violation.  ...  If  any  worker 
shall  wilfully  violate  the  spirit  of  the  agreement 
by  intentional  opposition  to  its  fundamental  pur- 
poses (and  especially  if  he  carry  such  wilful 
violation  into  action  by  striking  and  inciting 
others  to  strike  or  stop  work  during  working 
hours)  he  shall,  if  the  charge  is  proven,  be  sub- 
ject to  suspension,  discharge  or  fine.  ...  If 
any  foreman,  superintendent  or  agent  of  the 
company  shall  wilfully  violate  the  spirit  of  this 


200      THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

agreement  and  especially  if  he  fails  to  observe 
and  carry  out  any  decision  of  the  Trade  Board 
or  Board  of  Arbitration  he  shall,  if  the  charge 
is  proven,  be  subject  to  a  fine  of  not  less  than 
$10  or  more  than  $100  for  each  offence." 

This  matter  of  discipline  is,  of  course,  a  key- 
stone of  the  new  movement.  It  is  one  of  the 
elements  which  has  made  expert  labour  mana- 
gers so  necessary  to  employers:  men  expert  in 
dealing  with  the  workers  and  with  the  union 
leaders.  Much  wisdom  is  already  growing  up 
out  of  these  agreements.  Consider  this  para- 
graph upon  discipline  by  Professor  Earl  Dean 
Howard,  labour  manager  for  Hart,  Schaffner 
&  Marx: 

"So  long  as  the  offending  employee  is  to  be 
retained  in  the  factory,  any  disciplinary  penalty 
must  be  corrective  and  no  more  severe  than  is 
necessary  to  accomplish  the  best  results  for  all 
concerned.  Most  offenders  are  victims  of  wrong 
ideals  or  mental  deficiencies,  the  remedy  for 
which  is  not  punishment  but  help  and  instruc- 
tion. Delinquencies  in  management  can  fre- 
quently be  discovered  and  the  manager  or  other 
executive  may  need  the  services  of  the  expert 
discipline  officer  quite  as  much  as  the  original 
offender.  The  efficiency  of  the  discipline  officer 
should  be  measured  by  the  proportion  of  ex- 
offenders  who  have  ultimately  become  compe- 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  201 

tent  and  loyal  friends  of  the  company.  It  is  his 
prime  duty  to  prevent  and  remove  from  the 
minds  of  the  people  all  sense  of  injustice  in  their 
relations  with  the  employer,  which  is  the  funda- 
mental cause  of  the  bitterest  industrial  conflicts." 

Another  most  important  test  of  the  new  sys- 
tem is  this:  does  it  get  results  in  added  produc- 
tion? This  is  the  question  that  not  only  the 
employers,  but  the  public,  will  anxiously  ask. 

Well,  industry  is  now  learning,  after  hard  ex- 
perience, that  production  is  due  far  more  to  the 
spirit  of  the  shop,  to  goodwill,  than  to  any  other 
single  factor.  It  cannot  be  secured  for  long 
by  coercion,  nor  do  high  wages  necessarily  as- 
sure it.  Whatever  makes  for  more  of  the  co- 
operative and  democratic  spirit  in  the  shop,  in- 
variably makes  for  more  production.  The  ratio 
is  exact.  The  old  spirit  of  civil  war,  antagonism, 
and  hostility  is  deep-seated  and  hard  to  eradi- 
cate: therefore,  the  change  from  inefficiency  and 
low  production  to  higher  production  is  slow. 
The  turn  has  actually  come  in  Chicago,  where 
the  new  government  is  well  entrenched:  it  can- 
not be  said,  yet,  to  have  come  in  New  York, 
where  the  system  is  still  new.  Under  the  old 
"  sweat-shop  "  conditions  high  production  was 
forced  by  actual  coercion:  and  the  rebound  has 
been  to  the  other  extreme.  And  yet  even  in 
New  York,  both  employers  and  workers  are 


202      THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

beginning  to  turn  their  attention  seriously  to  the 
matter  of  more  and  better  production.  Last 
June  the  Cutters  Union,  in  an  agreement,  ac- 
cepted the  principle  of  joint  responsibility  for 
production  and  steady  employment.  In  August 
the  knee-pants  workers  made  a  similar  agree- 
ment. In  one  shop  where  there  had  been  a 
sharp  drop  in  production  following  the  introduc- 
tion of  week-work  instead  of  piece-work,  joint 
conferences  were  held  between  employers  and 
workers.  It  was  explained  to  the  workers  that 
low  production  in  New  York  meant  that  trade 
would  be  seized  by  the  more  efficient  markets  of 
Chicago  and  Rochester,  and  that  for  the  good 
of  all,  production  must  be  kept  high.  The  whole 
matter  was  discussed  by  the  workers  with  the 
result  that  there  was  immediate  and  decided  im- 
provement. 

As  to  the  public  interest  in  production,  the 
new  agreement  in  the  clothing  trades  is  an  im- 
portant element  in  keeping  down  the  price  of 
clothes.  Continuous  production,  as  contrasted 
with  the  old  wastefulness  of  strikes  and  shut- 
downs, is  a  real  service  to  the  public:  for  what- 
ever the  issue  of  a  strike,  it  is  the  public  that  in 
the  long  run  pays  the  bills  for  idleness.  In  a 
recent  award  as  arbitrator  at  Chicago,  Professor 
James  H.  Tufts  said: 

"  The  social  and  public  value  of  an  orderly, 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  203 

peaceful  method  of  negotiation  and  arbitration 
for  wage  adjustments  (and  all  other  disputes 
between  employers  and  employed)  cannot  be 
gainsaid.  This  industry,  as  now  organized  under 
agreements  which  aim  to  substitute  reason  for 
force,  is  performing  an  important  public  service. 
Both  the  firms  and  the  union  members  have 
made  certain  financial  sacrifices  for  the  sake 
of  a  larger  end.  The  labour  market  is  being 
stabilized:  goodwill  is  being  cultivated:  respon- 
sibility is  being  built  up." 

Yet  there  is  a  real  danger  to  the  public  in- 
herent in  this  new  movement,  which  the  critic 
must  recognize.  When  the  whole  industry  be- 
comes thoroughly  organized,  the  employers  on 
one  side,  the  workers  on  the  other,  and  disci- 
plined under  an  industrial  government  of  their 
own,  there  is  the  danger  that  they  will  use  their 
power  to  raise  prices  and  enrich  themselves 
at  the  expense  of  the  people  who  must  buy 
clothing.  I  have  argued  this  point  many  times 
with  men  on  both  sides.  They  answer  that  their 
arbitrators  are  far-sighted,  impartial  men  of 
high  standing,  who  will  help  to  watch  the  public 
interest,  and  that  they  themselves  are  wise 
enough  to  see  that  very  high  prices  tend  to  cur- 
tail consumption:  and  therefore  reduce  the  in- 
come to  the  industry.  These  are  all,  indeed, 
drags  upon  the  tendency  of  a  powerful  and 


204.      THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

united  industry  to  force  up  its  profits  unduly: 
but  unchecked  power  of  this  sort  is  still  danger- 
ous. It  is  at  this  point,  probably,  that  the 
United  States  Government  will  have  to  play  an 
important  part.  At  present  there  are  no  such 
things  as  standards  in  any  industry.  We  don't 
know  what  are  the  proper  standards  of  living: 
or  what  should  be  the  relationships  of  wages  to 
cost  of  living.  We  don't  know,  by  scientific 
tests,  what  should  constitute  a  day's  work  in  any 
industry :  either  in  hours  or  in  production.  Here 
is  a  vast  field  for  thorough  and  impartial  ex- 
amination, and  a  new  kind  of  publicity:  and  the 
United  States  Government  is  the  only  agency 
that  can  properly  undertake  it. 

Whenever  I  have  spoken  of  this  new  system  to 
employers  in  other  industries,  two  questions  are 
nearly  always  forthcoming.  How  about  union- 
ism? How  do  they  get  rid  of  bad  labour 
leaders  ? 

In  this  industry,  they  have  the  open  shop,  the 
closed  shop  and  the  preferential  shop:  all  three 
kinds:  but  the  question,  once  the  new  spirit  of 
co-operation  develops,  curiously  becomes  one  of 
minor  importance.  In  Chicago  they  agree  to 
neither  an  open  shop,  nor  a  closed  shop,  but 
have  a  preferential  shop.  That  is,  preference  is 
given  to  the  union  man  in  both  hiring  and  laying 
off.  But  with  a  thoroughly  responsible  union 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  205 

the  whole  matter  takes  care  of  itself.  As  to  the 
irresponsible  or  grafting  labour  leader,  he  simply 
cannot  thrive  in  this  atmosphere  of  constant  co- 
operation and  goodwill.  Your  bad  labour 
leader  fattens  on  civil  war  in  industry:  he  plays 
upon  the  fears  and  cupidities  of  both  sides.  In 
the  New  York  market,  recently,  several  minor 
leaders  were  accused  of  dishonest  practices,  tried 
by  the  union  itself,  and  not  only  deprived  of  their 
offices,  but  in  three  cases  expelled  from  the 
union.  Hart,  S chaff ner  &  Marx  gives  this  testi- 
mony: 

"  Much  depends  upon  the  leaders  of  the 
workers.  We  have  had  some  experience  with 
misinformed  and  self-seeking  men  who  secured 
temporary  influence  over  our  people,  but  some- 
how they  failed  to  thrive  in  the  atmosphere  of 
our  agreement." 

As  to  the  workers  under  the  agreement,  the 
change  from  the  "  sweat-shop  "  conditions  of  a 
few  years  ago  is  little  short  of  miraculous.  They 
now  have  a  forty-four  hour  week  throughout  the 
industry  and  wages  that  bring  them  well  up  to 
the  American  standard  of  living.  They  have 
gained  in  morale  and  in  responsibility  through 
self-expression  in  their  unions.  The  social  spirit 
is  strong  among  them,  and  is  beginning  to  ex- 
hibit itself  in  all  sorts  of  new  projects,  such  as 
co-operative  enterprises,  educational  and  amuse- 


206      THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

ment  associations,  naturalization  and  American- 
ization work,  mutual-aid  organizations,  and  so 
on.  There  is  a  world  of  social  education  and 
discipline  yet  to  be  gained,  but  the  beginnings 
have  been  made. 

I  have  feared  all  along  the  temptation  to  be 
over-sanguine  about  this  remarkable  new  move- 
ment, as  well  as  the  less  developed  shop-com- 
mittee systems  which  I  have  described  in  former 
chapters.  It  must  be  said  in  all  fairness,  that  the 
great  test  of  these  new  experiments  is  yet  to 
come.  They  have  come  into  being  on  a  rising 
market  and  during  a  shortage  of  labour.  What 
will  happen  when  there  is  a  falling  market,  or 
"  hard  times  " — when  there  is  again  a  surplus 
of  labour?  Or,  what  will  happen  if  the  immi- 
gration of  foreign  labour  again  inundates  us  and 
brings  new  competition  into  the  labour  market? 
We  must  face  these  questions. 

I  found  the  leaders  on  both  sides  in  the  cloth- 
ing industry  very  certain  that  they  could  weather 
the  storm. 

"  There  is  no  other  alternative,"  said  one: 
"  if  we  don't  hang  together,  we  hang  sepa- 
rately. The  only  alternative  is  anarchy  and 
chaos :  we  have  got  to  maintain  organization  and 
a  reign  of  law,  or  we  all  go  down  together." 

And  it  is  a  fact,  also,  that  in  both  Great 
Britain  and  Germany  industry  is  seeking  these 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  207 

new  co-operative  arrangements  as  the  only  way 
of  escape.  Far-sighted  and  wise  men  on  both 
sides  see  in  some  approach  toward  industrial 
democracy  the  inevitable  next  step. 

No,  we  cannot  be  sure  that  this  particular 
mechanism  will  work.  All  we  can  ever  know, 
for  a  certainty,  about  any  complex  problem  in 
life  is  the  rectitude  of  our  spirit  in  approaching 
it.  In  these  new  movements,  however  faltering, 
we  discover,  it  seems  clear  to  me,  a  genuine  effort 
toward  more  co-operation,  more  goodwill,  more 
democracy,  an  honest  though  difficult  struggle  to 
emerge  from  anarchy  into  organization  and  a 
reign  of  law.  This  effort,  this  struggle,  at  its 
core,  is  sound;  it  is  based  upon  the  eternal  veri- 
ties. We  must  have  faith  in  it. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

FOUNDATIONS  OF  THE  NEW  CO-OPERATIVE  MOVE- 
MENT IN  INDUSTRY — THE  NEW  PROFESSOR  OF 
MANAGEMENT,  AND  THE  LABOUR  MANAGER 

TO  many  people  the  new  "  shop  council " 
and  co-operative  plans  for  dealing  with 
the  problems  of  labour  seem  like  a  revo- 
lutionary innovation — a  transformation  too  sud- 
den to  be  sound.  As  a  matter  of  fact  the 
preparation  which  preceded  the  introduction  of 
the  new  system,  while  quiet,  has  been  substantial 
and  thorough.  The  changes  appear  sudden  in 
many  cases  because  they  were  precipitated,  per- 
haps a  little  before  industry  in  general  was  quite 
ready  to  accept  them,  by  the  exigencies  of  the 
war  and  bf  reconstruction. 

In  this  chapter  I  wish  to  give  some  glimpses 
of  the  background  of  the  new  movement — show 
something  of  the  preparation  for  it.  A  move- 
ment which  finds  such  swift  acceptance  in  the 
three  principal  industrial  nations  of  the  world — • 
Great  Britain,  Germany  and  the  United  States 
— must  have  behind  it  a  solid  body  of  conviction, 

We  have  been  accustomed  in  the  past  to  con- 
sider only  three  groups  as  vitally  concerned  in 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  209 

industry:  the  employer-capitalist:  the  worker: 
the  public.  But  very  quietly,  in  the  last  fifteen 
years,  a  fourth  group  has  been  rising  in  impor- 
tance— especially  in  large  industries  of  all  kinds. 
The  members  of  this  group  do  not  belong 
strictly  to  the  employer-class,  nor  yet  to  the 
working-class,  nor  do  they  stand  aside  like  the 
public.  They  belong  to  the  new  profession  of 
management:  they  are  the  experts  in  scientific 
production  or  the  experts  in  dealing  with 
labour. 

As  long  as  industry  was  small  and  the  rela- 
tionship between  employer  and  worker  was  close 
and  personal,  the  labour  question  was  of  rela- 
tive unimportance:  but  with  the  growth  of 
great  industry,  the  owner-employer  was  sepa- 
rated farther  and  farther  from  the  actual  func- 
tions of  management.  There  crept  in  managers, 
superintendents,  foremen,  as  connecting  links 
between  the  owner  and  the  worker.  As  time 
passed  these  men  have  grown  more  and  more 
important  to  industry:  for  it  is  upon  their  skill, 
knowledge,  tact,  that  the  prosperity  of  the  shop 
or  mill  really  rests.  In  most  of  the  greater  in- 
dustries in  America  to-day  the  owner-employer- 
capitalist  lives  in  some  more  or  less  distant  city: 
he  handles  problems  of  financing,  salesmanship, 
advertising,  and  leaves  the  actual  operation  of 
the  mill  or  factory  largely  to  the  managers. 


210      THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

These  managers  are  thus  men  not  primarily 
interested  in  profits — for  they  do  not  often  get 
any  of  the  profits  they  make — but  in  production, 
in  efficiency,  in  the  process  itself:  so  they  have 
begun,  more  and  more,  to  develop  a  professional 
spirit  toward  their  work.  Perhaps  no  recent 
movement  in  our  educational  life  has  been  more 
notable  than  the  rapid  development  of  schools 
of  ^  business  engineering,  schools  in  which  the 
principles  of  management  are  studied  and 
taught.  Many  of  the  great  universities  and 
technical  colleges — Harvard,  Dartmouth,  Wis- 
consin, Chicago,  Illinois,  New  York  and  others 
specialize  in  these  lines.  Drexel  Institute  in 
Philadelphia,  for  example,  maintains  a  school 
especially  for  training  foremen. 

A  great  new  impetus  toward  a  professional 
rather  than  a  mere  profit-making  attitude 
toward  industry  was  given  by  F.  W.  Taylor  a 
dozen  years  ago  in  his  campaign  for  scientific 
management.  Other  movements  like  the  study 
of  safety-engineering,  profit-sharing,  vocational 
guidance,  the  sanitation  and  housing  of  workers, 
the  development  of  psychological  tests  for  em- 
ployment, the  whole  great  trend  toward  voca- 
tional and  technical  education,  have  all  helped  in 
stimulating  this  new  professional  spirit. 

Management  is  thus  coming  to  rank  as  a  pro- 
fession, as  Webster's  dictionary  well  defines  the 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  211 

term :  "  a  calling  in  which  a  man  uses  his  knowl- 
edge for  instructing,  guiding  or  advising  others 
or  of  serving  them  in  some  art."  Here  the 
ideas  of  education  and  service,  not  of  profit, 
come  uppermost  and  this  is  the  true  attitude  of 
the  new  profession. 

I  speak  of  this  broad  development,  which  is  now 
firmly  entrenched  in  America,  with  its  regular 
publications,  its  societies  and  organizations,  in 
order  to  make  clearer  the  relative  place  of  the 
labour  manager,  and  labour  management,  which, 
as  a  newer  part  of  the  general  movement,  is  com- 
ing to  occupy  a  most  important  place  in  our  in- 
dustrial life. 

As  an  indication  of  the  extent  of  the  develop- 
ment, the  annual  convention  of  the  new  Na- 
tional Association  of  Labour  managers  held  last 
May  (1919)  at  Cleveland  was  attended  by  1,006 
delegates  from  every  section  of  the  country.  It 
was  so  large  a  gathering  that  two  banquets  had 
to  be  held  to  accommodate  all  the  members. 

The  significance  of  this  new  movement  can 
hardly  be  exaggerated:  for  it  means  a  right- 
about-face in  the  attitude  of  our  industries 
toward  labour.  From  being  the  least  considered 
of  the  elements  that  enter  into  production  it  be- 
comes the  most  considered. 

A.  H.  Young,  the  labour  manager  for  the 
International  Harvester  Company,  one  of  the 


212      THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

pioneers  in  the  movement,  speaks  of  the  mem- 
bers of  the  new  profession  as  "  pioneers  in  a  new 
era  in  industry."  He  refers  to  the  series  of 
revolutionary  changes  in  our  industrial  life  in 
the  last  half -century :  the  steam-engine  and 
power  development:  new  methods  of  trans- 
portation and  communication:  the  perfection  of 
automatic  tools:  and  the  consolidation  of  busi- 
ness organization. 

"  And  at  last,"  he  says,  "  has  come  this  be- 
lated concentration  of  thought  and  effort  upon 
the  human  machine.  .  .  .  Our  function  is  to 
nurture  this  new  interest  in  human  well-being; 
to  show  the  foremen,  the  workers,  the  officers, 
the  owners,  the  truly  wonderful  fruits  of  mutual 
service;  to  stimulate  their  effort  in  its  develop- 
ment; to  seek  constantly  for  and  apply  new 
truths;  and  to  note  as  our  reward  not  that 
which  we  have  done,  but  the  result  accomplished 
by  all." 

The  new  co-operative  spirit  is  strong  in  all 
of  these  men. 

"  The  whole  movement,"  says  Dudley  Kennedy, 
personnel  manager  at  the  Hog  Island  shipyards, 
"is  an  attempt  to  get  back  the  old  spirit  of 
'  cameraderie '  that  prevailed  when  the  owner 
was  personally  known  and  truly  appreciated  by 
every  one  of  his  employees  ...  an  attempt  to 
return  to  something  like  the  old  relationship 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  213 

when  the  employer  and  his  employees  were  real 
co-operating  friends." 

The  new  profession  is  so  interesting  that  it 
has  drawn  into  it  a  very  high  class  of  men  with 
high  purposes.  In  the  clothing  industry,  of 
which  I  have  already  spoken,  many  of  the  labour 
managers  were  formerly  college  professors;  in 
one  case  I  know  the  labour  manager  was 
formerly  a  minister:  and  most  of  them  are  men 
who  can  approach  the  difficult  new  problems  in 
a  broad  scientific  and  sympathetic  spirit.  A 
labour  representative  of  one  of  the  great  indus- 
tries of  America  thus  describes  the  new  pro- 
fession : 

"  Many  successful  employment  managers  have 
had  little  or  no  '  practical '  experience.  These 
men  possess  almost  a  sixth  sense  which  is  a 
composite  of  a  large  measure  of  horse  sense,  a 
generous  dose  of  the  milk  of  human  kindness, 
great  sympathy,  tact,  diplomacy,  and  finally,  an 
unwavering  belief  in  the  cause  espoused,  coupled 
with  absolute  honesty  of  purpose.  The  workers 
are  about  the  hardest  people  in  the  world  to 
fool.  Mummery,  stage-business,  forms,  mechan- 
ics or  technique,  will  not  produce  happy  rela- 
tions between  the  employer  and  employees  in  a  * 
plant  where  they  are  set  up  in  lieu  of  personality 
and  honesty  of  intent  to  serve." 

The  primary  purpose  of  the  labour  manager 


214      THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

is  to  understand  the  workers'  point  of  view  so 
thoroughly  and  so  sympathetically  that  he  can 
present  it  strongly  and  clearly  to  the  manage- 
ment. In  the  clothing  trades,  where  the  develop- 
ment is  probably  the  most  advanced,  the  work  of 
dealing  with  the  labour  leaders  is  an  important 
one  (and  the  labour  leaders  here  co-operate  per- 
fectly with  the  labour  managers) :  and  in  some 
industries  the  labour  manager  has  become  so 
essential  an  element  that  he  has  been  taken  into 
the  management  as  a  vice-president  or  other 
official  upon  an  equal  basis  with  the  other  three 
great  departments  of  industry:  production, 
finance  and  sales. 

The  labour  manager  also  plays  an  important 
part  in  all  of  the  activities  connected  with  safety, 
sanitation,  housing  and  in  general  welfare 
work.  I  spoke  in  another  chapter  of  the  hos- 
tility of  workmen  in  the  steel  industry  to  wel- 
fare work — they  even  call  it  "  hell-fare  "  work, 
because  they  think  it  an  effort  to  substitute 
trivial  favours  for  essential  justice.  There  was 
no  such  feeling  in  times  when  industry  was  small 
and  employer  and  worker  were  close  together: 
for  then  a  gift  from  the  employer  to  the  men 
could  be  understood  on  both  sides.  Under  the 
labour  manager  there  can  be  again  a  proper 
approach  to  welfare  work.  Here  is  the  word 
of  the  managers  of  one  large  factory: 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  215 

One  of  the  most  important  functions  of  our  labour  de- 
partment is  welfare  work — giving  advice  and  material  as- 
sistance to  unfortunate  employees,  improving  the  working 
conditions  in  the  shops,  maintaining  rest  rooms  and  librar- 
ies, etc., — but  this  is  not  done  for  the  purpose  of  more 
easily  depriving  the  workers  of  their  right  to  be  repre- 
sented in  all  matters  to  which  their  interests  are  involved. 
Working  men  are  quick  to  resent  the  substitution  of  favours 
for  justice.  Welfare  work,  however,  in  connection  with 
general  fair  dealing  is  very  effective  in  securing  goodwill, 
especially  if  it  increases  the  personal  contact  between  the 
officials  of  the  company  and  the  employees. 


Yet  I  do  not  wish  to  imply  that  the  ppthway 
of  the  labour  manager  is  "  roses  all  the  way." 
Far  from  it.  Often  the  employer  does  not  more 
than  half  believe  that  he  is  worth  his  salt.  Fore- 
men, superintendents  and  other  production  offi- 
cials find  it  hard,  as  William  M.  Leiserson,  of 
Rochester,  one  of  the  most  experienced  of  labour 
experts,  has  testified,  "  to  give  up  their  tradi- 
tional authority  to  what  they  consider  imprac- 
tical young  men  with  new-fangled  notions  of 
kindness  and  consideration  in  the  treatment  of 
labour." 

No,  the  old  system  dies  hard! 

Enterprises  where  the  labour  manager  has 
been  introduced,  and  where  the  new  co-operative 
spirit  has  begun  to  express  itself,  find  immedi- 
ate results  in  increased  production,  says  Morris 


216      THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

L.  Cooke,  one  of  the  foremost  of  American 
efficiency  engineers: 

"  Permanent  success  in  increasing  produc- 
tiveness is  invariably  accompanied  by  an  inten- 
sive cultivation  of  the  personnel  problem.  The 
manufacturing  plant  seeking  increased  output 
should  have  as  its  purpose  '  the  highest  develop- 
ment— mental,  moral  and  spiritual — of  each  and 
every  person  connected  with  the  organization.' ' 

One  of  the  greatest  causes  of  inefficiency  in 
industry  is  a  high  labour  turn -over :  and  the  kind 
of  sabotage  in  which  the  workers  hold  back  on 
production.  The  labour  manager  who  devotes 
his  whole  time  to  the  study  of  these  problems 
and  to  ways  for  curing  them,  has  been  found  to 
be  of  the  greatest  service. 

In  fact,  the  increased  efficiency  resulting  from 
a  genuine  effort  to  study  the  personnel  prob- 
lems in  a  shop  or  mill  is  so  evident  that  many 
employers  have  introduced  the  system  with  the 
idea  that  it  will  solve  all  the  problems  of  labour. 
But  it  is  no  cure-all.  It  is  only  the  beginning 
of  the  long  process  of  co-operation:  the  begin- 
ning of  a  new  relationship:  and  unless  the  em- 
ployer is  willing  to  go  forward  with  the  intro- 
duction of  more  democratic  methods  of  manage- 
ment throughout,  he  will  not  for  long  reap  the 
rewards  of  the  new  experiment. 

Specialization  in  labour  management  is  of  no 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  217 

sporadic  growth,  nor  does  it  represent  mere 
idealistic  experimentation:  it  is  now  firmly 
rooted  in  many  branches  of  American  industry. 
Among  the  membership  of  the  new  National 
Association  of  employment  managers  are  repre- 
sented many  of  the  most  progressive  industries 
in  America.  The  President  is  Philip  J.  Reilly 
of  the  Dennison  Manufacturing  Company,  now 
connected  with  the  Retail  Research  Association, 
the  vice-president  is  John  C.  Bower  of  the 
AVestinghouse  Electric  Company,  the  secretary 
is  Mark  M.  Jones  of  the  Thomas  A.  Edison 
Industries  of  Orange,  N.  J. 

Some  industries  are  very  cautious  and  have 
not  gone  far  in  trusting  their  labour  managers, 
nor  in  introducing  even  the  rudiments  of  the 
new  co-operative  spirit:  in  others  the  labour 
manager  has  become  the  most  important  official 
of  the  company.  Of  all  the  openings  in  industry 
to-day  for  able  young  men,  especially  those  who 
are  infused  with  something  of  the  new  spirit  of 
social  service  and  desire  to  go  into  business  not 
for  mere  profit  but  because  there  is  also  a  genu- 
ine opportunity  to  serve,  none  is  more  promising 
than  the  profession  of  labour  manager.  And  the 
demand  for  experts  in  this  line  during  the  next 
few  years  will  be  extensive. 

It  is  this  professional  attitude  toward  in- 
dustry, with  its  new  sense  of  the  untapped  re- 


218      THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

sources  of  the  human  element  in  production, 
which  gives  one  such  confidence  in  the  stability 
of  the  "  shop-councils  "  movement,  the  new  effort 
to  secure  employees'  representation,  the  new 
methods  of  co-operating  with  labour  unions,  and 
the  whole  trend  toward  more  democracy  in  in- 
dustry. It  is  the  best  warrant  that  they  will 
"  stand  the  test  of  hard  times." 

This  movement,  and  the  remarkable  recent  re- 
vival of  interest  of  the  labour  organizations  in 
co-operative  trading  enterprises  among  working 
men — such  as  stores — and  even  banks  and  fac- 
tories— are  perhaps  the  most  hopeful  signs  upon 
a  rather  gloomy  industrial  horizon. 

'  We  and  all  the  nations  perceive,  as  never 
before,"  says  Professor  John  R.  Commons  in  his 
book,  "  Industrial  Good-will,"  "  that  the  next 
stage  in  industrial  progress  is  not  that  economic 
revolution  which  Karl  Marx  predicted,  it  is  not 
even  development  in  machinery  and  tools,  but  it 
is  the  increased  production  and  increased  wealth 
of  the  world  which  are  now  dependent  upon  the 
health,  intelligence,  goodwill  of  labour.  That 
nation  which  is  foremost  in  giving  heed  to  the 
health  and  housing,  the  vocational  education, 
security,  and  wages  of  its  working  people  will 
be  the  nation  which  will  survive  even  in  time  of 
peace." 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

AUTOCRACY  AND   DEMOCRACY   STRUGGLE   FOR 

INDUSTRIAL  CONTROL — SOME  RESULTS  OF 

THE  NEW  CO-OPERATIVE  EXPERIMENTS 

IX  this  final  chapter  I  wish  to  gather  certain 
loose  ends,  and  suggest  certain  general  con- 
clusions. 

Boiled  down,  the  present  crisis  in  America — 
and  for  that  matter  in  the  world — represents  a 
struggle  to  escape  from  the  chaos  of  industrial 
warfare,  with  the  waste  and  inefficiency  which 
characterize  war,  into  a  new  reign  of  law  and 
order.  "  Law  and  order,"  however  much  the 
term  may  J^e  abused,  is  to-day  the  passionate 
desire,  the  deep  need,  of  the  whole  world.  It  is 
desired  and  needed  in  international  affairs:  still 
more  desired  and  needed  in  the  great  field  of 
industry. 

Three  methods  are  proposed  for  attaining 
law  and  order  in  industry. 

The  first  is  that  of  the  extreme  conservatives 
like  Judge  Gary  of  the  United  States  Steel 
Corporation,  who  would  enforce  law  and  order 
from  above  by  virtue  of  maintaining  a  de- 
termined autocracv  of  capital.  While  power- 


220      THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

fully  organized  themselves,  employers  who  hold 
to  this  point  of  view  use  every  device  to  keep 
labour  disorganized.  Judge  Gary  will  neither 
meet  nor  deal  with  outside  representatives  of 
union  labour,  nor  will  he  recognize  organizations 
within  his  mills. 

If  employers  of  this  type  are  forced  by  the 
growing  power  of  labour  to  deal  with  the  unions 
it  is  in  no  real  spirit  of  co-operation :  they  merely 
sign  a  truce,  and  the  attitude  on  both  sides  re- 
mains one  of  suspicion  and  hostility  which  may  at 
any  moment  flame  up  in  open  war  (strikes,  lock- 
outs). 

The  second  method  is  that  of  the  extreme 
radicals.  An  examination  of  the  extreme  radical 
movements  among  American  workers  will  show 
that  most  of  them  have  for  their  central  purpose, 
however  vaguely  expressed,  however  veiled,  the 
imposition  of  law  and  order  upon  industry 
through  autocratic  control  by  labour.  They  see 
only  injustice,  suppression,  inefficiency,  in  the 
autocracy  of  capital — and  they  fly  to  the  other 
extreme.  "  Labour  must  rule,"  is  the  slogan  of 
revolutionary  radicalism.  Extreme  conservatism 
thus  breeds  extreme  radicalism:  Czarism  breeds 
Bolshevism.  The  exemplification  of  this  ex- 
treme point  of  view  is  found  in  the  "  dictatorship 
of  the  proletariat "  now  existing  in  Russia. 
While  the  great  masses  of  labour  in  America 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  221 

to-day  are  not  yet  touched  with  this  extreme 
spirit,  nevertheless  labour  unions  are  growing 
now  as  never  before:  they  are  penetrating  many 
industries  formerly  unorganized:  like  the  steel 
mills  and  the  textile  industries.  They  have  al- 
ready conquered  the  packing-house  industries. 
They  are  going  into  politics  as  never  before— 
with  the  successes  of  the  Labour  Party  in 
England  to  cheer  them  on.  They  are  undertak- 
ing with  a  fresh  spirit  of  determination  co-opera- 
tive enterprises  designed  to  serve  the  sole  needs 
of  the  workers. 

To  any  honest  observer  who  surveys  the  de- 
velopment of  the  past  twenty-five  years  it  is 
clear  that  while  they  have  lost  battles  the 
workers  are  winning  the  war.  One  need  only 
recall  as  evidence  of  this  advance  the  immense 
body  of  labour  legislation  passed  during  the  last 
few  years  in  America  and  the  fact  that  labour 
is  now  represented  in  the  President's  cabinet; 
one  need  only  recall  the  part  which  labour 
leaders  played  during  the  war:  and,  finally,  the 
power  exhibited  recently  by  labour  organizations 
in  the  steel  and  coal  strikes  and  in  the  railroad 
controversy.  While  the  masses  of  American 
labour  may  not  subscribe  to  the  outright  pro- 
gram of  the  extreme  radicals  that  "  labour  must 
rule,"  yet  the  whole  drift  of  the  labour  move- 
ment is  in  that  direction. 


222      THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

The  third  method  represents  a  vigorous  rejec- 
tion of  the  whole  idea  of  autocracy — either  the 
blind  and  greedy  autocracy  of  capital,  or  the 
rough  autocracy  of  labour.  A  sturdy  and 
wholesome  voice  is  rising  powerfully  in  America 
— not  clear  yet  and  rather  angry,  but  full  of 
vitality — that  says: 

"  A  plague  o'  both  your  houses.  We  will 
be  bossed  neither  by  Gary  nor  by  Hay  wood: 
nor  by  the  ideas  'they  personify.  Get  together 
now  and  do  your  job!  Give  us  production:  give 
us  clothes  and  coal  and  steel  and  food — and  stop 
your  fighting  about  it!" 

Out  of  this  spirit,  and  out  of  the  intolerable 
chaos  which  long-continued  conditions  of  inci- 
pient civil  war  in  industry  have  produced,  has 
sprung  the  remarkable  movement  which  I  have 
already  described,  toward  a  new  co-operative 
relationship  between  employers  and  workers: 
and  a  gradual  substitution  of  democratic  for 
autocratic  control  of  industry.  It  represents  a 
right-about-face:  a  new  spirit,  a  new  attitude. 
It  is  opposed  by  both  extremes :  both  the  old  hard- 
set  employer-class  and  the  wilder  radicals:  but 
it  is  being  accepted  by  the  younger,  more  pro- 
gressive leaders  among  both  employers  and 
workers,  and  is  spreading  with  great  rapidity. 

To-day  the  two  ideas — democracy  versus  au- 
tocracy— are  struggling  for  mastery  in  Ameri- 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  223 

can  industry:  upon  the  issue  hangs,  to  a  large 
extent,  the  future  welfare  and  progress  of  the 
nation. 

The  great  need  of  a  world  that  is  short  of 
clothing,  food,  housing,  manufactured  materials 
of  all  kinds,  is  more  production. 

The  old  autocratic  method  of  control  has 
been  weighed  in  the  balance  and  found  want- 
ing as  an  agency  for  increasing  production. 
It  has  been  inefficient  and  wasteful  to  a 
degree  that  few  people  realize.  Scientists  in  in- 
dustry have  declared  that  our  industrial  plants 
are  producing  only  about  a  quarter  as  much  as 
they  might  produce,  without  a  cent  of  additional 
capital,  if  methods  of  handling  both  machinery 
and  personnel  were  perfected.  Morale  in  in- 
dustry has  dropped  below  zero.  Autocratic  em- 
ployers think  sometimes  that  when  they  have 
prevented  labour  organization  or  held  it  back 
that  they  have  prevented  strikes  and  secured 
efficiency;  but  as  a  matter  of  fact  they  suffer 
continually  from  a  kind  of  chronic  disease  of 
striking.  Experienced  men  leave  their  jobs:  and 
new  and  inefficient  men  have  to  be  brought  in 
and  trained — a  very  expensive  process.  The 
"  labour  turn-over "  to-day  in  American  in- 
dustry is  appalling:  and  labour  turn-over  is  only 
a  chronic  phase  of  the  disease  of  striking.  It  is 
as  though  a  general  were  trying  to  fight  a  battle 


224.      THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

with  half  or  two-thirds  of  his  trained  men  desert- 
ing all  the  time,  with  raw  recruits  taking  their 
places!  Another  element  of  crass  inefficiency 
is  to  be  found  in  intermittent  employment,  as  in 
the  coal-mining  industry;  another  in  the  want  of 
any  systematic  effort  to  train  and  educate  workers 
to  do  their  work  well  instead  of  carelessly.  Of 
course,  with  labour  changing  all  the  time  any 
systematic  training  is  impossible.  Under  the 
old  system  no  loyalty  is  developed,  no  team- 
spirit,  no  enthusiasm. 

Under  the  new  plan  of  co-operative  effort 
production  increases  with  the  new  spirit  of  the 
shop.  Team-play  becomes  as  important  to  in- 
dustry as  to  baseball — team-play  and  sacrifice 
hitting.  And  with  honest  co-operation,  the 
worker  will  share  in  the  rewards  of  the  increased 
production  resulting  from  common  effort.  Some 
form  of  profit-sharing  eventually  appears  in 
industries  where  the  new  system  is  introduced: 
and  this  adds  further  stimulation  to  efficiency. 
The  autocratic  employer  often  complains  bit- 
terly that  the  worker  does  not  produce  as  much 
as  he  could. 

"  Why  should  I?  "  asks  the  worker.  "  I  get 
nothing  out  of  it.  None  of  the  profit  of  added 
production  comes  to  me.  The  employer  takes  it 
all." 

One  of  the  questions   that  is  always   fired 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  225 

straight  at  the  advocate  of  the  new  system  by 
the  employer  who  is  still  sceptical  about  it  is 
this: 

"  Now,  that's  all  right  in  the  clothing  trades 
— or  at  Wappingers  Falls — or  in  the  Dennison 
Manufacturing  Company — but  it  won't  work 
with  us  "  —and  he  begins  to  tell  of  his  peculiar 
difficulties,  and  of  how  unusually  ignorant  his 
workers  are,  and  how  atrocious  the  labour 
leaders  he  has  to  deal  with.  Or  he  says  that  the 
owner  of  such-and-such  a  plant  is  rich  and  can 
afford  to  experiment.  The  trouble  with  many 
employers  is  that  they  want  to  be  absolutely 
assured  of  success  before  they  venture :  and  that 
isn't  the  way  the  world  is  built. 

Nevertheless  it  is  a  fact  that  a  scheme  which 
succeeds  in  one  industry  may  fail  in  another. 
There  is  the  hackneyed  contrast  between  a 
water-power  plant  with  an  enormous  investment 
of  capital  and  a  labour  force  of  half  a  dozen 
men — and  a  laundry  with  little  or  no  capital  in- 
vested and  a  large  number  of  workers.  No 
mechanical  plan  can  fit  both  cases. 

Industry  is  as  various  as  life  itself:  wholly 
different  groups  of  conditions  present  themselves, 
for  example,  in  the  building  trades,  in  public 
service  corporations  like  railroads,  in  government 
or  municipal  employment.  Small-town  and 
small  factory  conditions  are  wholly  different 


226      THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

from  those  in  the  great  steel  and  textile  indus- 
tries. 

No  mere  mechanism — especially  no  patent- 
panacea,  and  there  are  patent-panaceas  in  this 
department  of  life  as  in  any  other — will  solve 
the  problem.  Everything  depends  upon  the 
spirit  of  approach:  the  attitude  of  employer  and 
worker:  if  there  is  a  real  desire  for  co-operation, 
a  genuine  wish  to  substitute  a  democratic  for  an 
autocratic  point  of  view,  the  method  will  soon 
appear.  Each  situation  must  be  'studied  for 
itself.  It  is  a  wholesome  sign  in  America  that 
we  are  taking  hold  of  the  problem  in  the  Ameri- 
can way — experimentally,  locally,  with  small 
respect  for  former  experience  and  with  little 
attention  to  theories — a  method  which  irritates 
some  critics  who  want  us  to  "  think  through  " 
and  to  "  have  a  program  " — like  the  Germans  or 
the  British.  The  variety  and  enthusiasm  of  the 
experimentation  in  America  seems  to  the  ob- 
server a  sign  of  health:  we  are  going  about  it 
with  the  same  spirit  of  inventiveness  and  in- 
geniousness — with  the  same  disregard  for  gov- 
ernment commissions  and  government  advice — 
which  has  always  marked  the  most  vigorous  and 
original  American  development. 

One  of  the  chief  dangers  now  confronting  the 
new  movement  is  the  evident  effort  upon  the 
part  of  some  employers  to  use  the  new  device 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  227 

with  the  intent  of  forestalling  the  organization 
of  labour.  They  put  in  the  form  of  the  system, 
perhaps  call  it  "  democracy,"  but  have  not  the 
spirit  by  which  it  can  really  be  made  to  work. 
There  is  a  type  of  employer,  as  H.  F.  J.  Porter 
remarks,  "  who  talks  co-operation  but  wants 
the  other  fellow  to  do  all  the  co-operating."  No 
class  of  men  are  harder  to  fool  than  the  workers: 
and  many  of  them  to-day  are  suspicious  of  the 
new  system  because  they  are  not  convinced  that 
it  is  genuine.  One  of  the  demands  of  the  steel 
workers  in  the  recent  strike  was  for  "  abolition  of 
company  unions."  There  is  danger  in  every 
case  where  the  system  is  "  put  in  "  by  the  em- 
ployer, as  he  would  put  in  a  new  machine,  with- 
out encouraging  a  firm  and  independent  organi- 
zation of  the  workers.  There  can  be  real  co- 
operation only  where  the  co-operators  both  have 
the  sense  of  being  free.  Goodwill  must  be 
reciprocal:  it  can  never  be  all  on  one  side.  I 
know  of  employers  who  have  put  in  various 
forms  of  welfare  work  with  a  real  intent  to  ex- 
press their  goodwill  and  have  been  tragically 
disappointed  when  it  evoked  no  return:  but 
goodwill  comes  not  out  of  gifts,  but  out  of  asso- 
ciation. It  is  for  this  reason  that  the  best  ex- 
ample of  the  development  of  the  whole  idea  is 
in  the  men's  clothing  trades  (as  I  have  already 
described),  in  which  both  sides  are  firmly  organ- 


228      THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

ized:  and  approach  each  other  face  to  face  as 
up-standing  equals. 

There  must  also  be  open  diplomacy  between 
the  co-operators:  there  is  nothing  that  so  allays 
suspicion  and  feeds  the  spirit  of  common  effort 
as  frankness  in  taking  the  workers  into  full  con- 
fidence. In  several  industries  in  America  repre- 
sentatives of  labour  now  sit  on  the  boards  of 
directors  and  are  fully  informed  of  the  entire 
state  of  the  business.  Real  publicity — which 
is  simple  truth  telling — would  solve  a  large  pro- 
portion of  the  ills  the  world  now  suffers  from. 

One  great  value  of  the  new  system  is  that  it 
must  more  and  more  set  up  standards  of  em- 
ployment— for  once  the  old  system  under  which 
labour  was  a  purchasable  commodity  is  shaken, 
new  methods  of  determining  standards  of  work, 
standards  of  living,  standards  of  pay,  must  be 
devised.  In  the  clothing  industry  research 
bureaus  have  already  been  established  by  both 
employers  and  workers  and  the  work  of  investi- 
gation has  begun:  but  probably  most  of  this 
task  will  eventually  have  to  be  done  by  outside, 
impartial  government  agencies. 

Another  important  development — perhaps  the 
most  important  of  all — is  the  gradual  upbuilding 
of  a  common  law  for  industry,  through  the  re- 
curring decisions  of  shop  councils  and  boards  of 
arbitration.  Industrial  democracy  is  thus  emerg- 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  229 

ing  just  as  did  political  democracy  through  a 
steady  accretion  of  principles  of  control  and 
adjustment:  a  veritable  common  law. 

Dean  J.  H.  Wigmore  of  the  Northwestern 
University  Law  School,  in  commenting  upon 
this  growth  of  law  in  the  clothing  trades  of 
Chicago  has  this  to  say: 

The  significant  thing  is  that  general  principles  are  be- 
ginning to  be  formulated.  And  the  moment  you  have  gen- 
eral principles,  used  for  deciding  particular  cases,  you 
have  justice  in  the  form  of  law,  as  distinguished  from  the 
arbitrary  justice  of  a  Turkish  caliph,  or  from  private 
struggle  decided  by  private  force. 

Industrial  controversy  will  become  as  justiciable  as  prop- 
erty controversy.  And  a  new  field  will  have  been  gained 
for  systematic  justice. 

Another  tendency  apparent  in  the  new  move- 
ment is  a  renewed  interest  in  education.  Just  as 
a  great  wave  of  educational  enthusiasm,  which 
found  its  best  expression  in  the  common  school 
system  of  America,  followed  the  introduction  of 
real  political  democracy,  so  a  wave  of  a  new 
kind  of  education  is  coming  in  with  the  ap- 
proach to  industrial  democracy.  Autocracy 
thrives  upon  ignorance  as  it  does  to-day  in  the 
steel  industry:  but  education  is  the  very  life- 
blood  of  democracy.  In  every  case  where  the 
new  system  has  been  genuinely  introduced  there 
is  a  tremendous  urge  toward  classes,  clubs, 


230      THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  UNREST 

schools.  Both  employers  and  workers  are  in- 
terested. The  Amalgamated  Clothing  Workers 
have  a  regular  department  of  education:  and 
the  shop  school,  or  the  training-class  is  a  charac- 
teristic feature  of  these  new  movements.  For 
with  goodwill  comes  a  new  loyalty  to  the  shop 
or  mill:  that  new  loyalty  tends  to  reduce  the 
labour  turn-over  and  make  for  steadier  employ- 
ment: and  steadier  employment  means  the 
opportunity  and  the  encouragement  for  better 
training  of  the  workers.  I  can  only  touch  upon 
this  important  subject  here:  it  deserves  an  entire 
chapter. 

One  other  point  is  of  great  importance:  the 
support  of  public  opinion  in  demanding  that  the 
two  parties  to  the  industrial  warfare  which  is 
now  paralysing  our  whole  life  get  together  and 
stay  together.  The  public  must  more  and  more 
keep  in  touch,  not  necessarily  with  the  details 
of  the  problems  involved,  but  with  the  general 
currents  of  progress. 

I  received  a  rather  impatient  letter  the  other 
day  from  a  correspondent  who  said  he  had  read 
my  presentation  of  some  of  the  rather  dis- 
couraging aspects  of  American  industry. 

"What  is  the  solution  of  the  problem?"  he 
demanded. 

Well,  I  felt  like  asking  in  return: 

"What  is  the  solution  of  life?" 


REASONS  AND  REMEDIES  231 

For  the  labour  problem  is  the  greatest  con- 
tinuing process  of  life.  In  it  are  involved  the 
myriad  human  relationships  under  which  men 
work  together  here  upon  the  earth  to  produce 
food,  clothing,  shelter — and  a  few  beautiful 
things — for  themselves  and  their  children.  Is 
there  any  "solution"  for  that? 

The  trouble  is  that  men  get  tired  and  want 
things  settled:  they  want  a  formula;  or  they 
find  a  warm  and  comfortable  corner  and  hate 
to  be  disturbed  in  it.  But  life  and  the  labour 
problem  do  not  get  tired :  they  go  on ! 

In  another  sense,  there  is  a  solution.  It  con- 
sists in  the  attitude,  the  spirit,  which  one  main- 
tains toward  the  labour  problem — an  adventur- 
ous, inquiring,  experimental  attitude,  ever  hos- 
pitable toward  new  facts:  and  a  generous  and 
democratic  spirit.  I  wonder  if  men  can  find 
this  solution  in  its  completeness  without  some 
high  faith  in  God,  and  some  vital  interest  in 
their  fellowmen. 


THE  END 


THE  COUNTRY  LIFE  PRESS 
GARDEN   CITY.    N.  Y. 


Date  Due 


MARL-' 

19/u 

MAR  1 

W7R7 

MAR  29 

97? 

p 

UARI 

6  1972  1 

m  •   •'• 

Library  Bureau  Cat.  No.  1137 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


A  A      000028034    7 


/<f 


